The Strange Case of Cody Jekyll and Duncan Hyde
by Blitzdrake
Summary: All Cody ever wanted was to be ‘cool,’ all he ever managed was ‘lame.’ Moved by a secret crush, Noah offers Cody a drink that unlocks the confidence within. But something else is unleashed, a dark and dangerous monster, Duncan Hyde. NoCo, GxT, DxC
1. Prologue: I Need to Know

**Summary: **All Cody Jekyll ever wanted was to be one of the popular kids at Wawanakwa High, but he never could quite fit in. Moved by sympathy and a secret crush, Noah offers the most unusual of solutions to the bumbling dweeb, a drink that could unlock all of the confidence and coolness inside. Suddenly Cody is climbing the social ladder and on top of the world, or at least the top of his school, but his new found charisma isn't the only thing Noah's potion has unleashed. Something dark has woken up inside the sweetest kid in school, and Wawanakwa High is soon suffering under the shadow of a mysterious bully, Duncan Hyde. Will Cody figure out what really matters and who, or will he lose his friends, his first chance at love, and ultimately....himself? The TDI cast presents: The Incredibly Strange Case of Cody Jekyll and Duncan Hyde. Expect late chapter CodyxNoah, and a slew of canon pairings, (GxT, BxG, DxC, DxN, etc). There are a few pairing surprises you may not expect, though if you are familiar with the actual Jekyll and Hyde musical, you can probably guess...if not...enjoy the surprise!

**Author's Note:** This is the prologue of a story I've been forcing poor Kirya to beta read for me! 3 After a few late night jokes and note passings, I decided it'd be a blast to try and remake a musical in TDI style. Seeing as Jekyll and Hyde has always been my favorite, I decided to rewrite it from a high school stand point, using those lovable TDI characters. I hope you enjoy this little teaser, even if the prologue is focused more on Cody's very distant past and is therefore missing the rest of the cast you know and love. The rest of them are waiting for you in Chapter one, I hope to see you there! And may it be as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write.

**Warnings:** Violence, Mild-Strong language at times. Beyond the pairings stated in the summary, expect a mix of Het/Slash so if either gayness or straightness offends you I suggest we part ways amicably here rather than share in this story of mine. If both offend you… you must have a terrible time getting dates, you have my deepest sympathies. Couples will come as they will, though excluding a few points laid out by Jekyll and Hyde, I will be adhering to TDI canon pairings. Romance is part of the story, but not the all of the story, so please do not be offended or expect characters to rush all snugly into each others arms after only 3 chapters. I do love reading that, it just appears I have trouble writing it. A final warning...this was written by an engineering/law student. I am trying my darnedest to overcome that handicap, but I have never quite managed to capture the elusive style the more popular fan-fictions are written in. You were warned!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Total Drama Island or Jekyll and Hyde. Likewise I have no claim on the slew of characters contained in either. I think if I did, TDA would have been a lot more enjoyable...at least for the squealing NoCo fans. And Trent would have been OCD from day one...way to NOT take advantage of a great character flaw.

* * *

"I need to find

A way to get inside the tortured mind of man.  
I need to try  
To separate the good and evil - if I can.

One thing is certain - the evil is stronger.  
Good fights a hopeless and desperate fight.  
I must find ways of adjusting the balance  
To bring him back from the empty black edge of night!"

~ Excerpt from 'I Need to Know' as performed in 'Jekyll and Hyde: Resurrection'

The Strange Case of Cody Jekyll and Duncan Hyde

Prologue: I Need to Know

After three months of visits, Emma Jekyll had come to realize she truly loathed Dr. Jung's waiting room. To be fair to Dr. Jung, she hated most waiting rooms and for that matter most doctors. Everything was too fake for Emma's taste, the entire thing was just one giant game of pretend that started the minute you walked in. The nurse always smiled at you and asked you to write your name on a sign in sheet, as if you were not expected. As if you would ever come to such a place without being asked or told too. Then she'd smile and ask you to sit and you'd be expected to smile back, as if everything were perfectly normal and fine. Then there were the magazines and puzzles. She'd decided long ago, that those were the worst part. They were too disingenuous, too obvious; as your finger's turned magazine pages worn thin and ragged by countless sweaty nervous hands before yours, you were supposed to act like whatever you were reading was fascinating. Supposed to pretend that the puzzle you were trying to solve was so difficult that it made you completely forget that you were sitting in a doctor's office. Sitting and waiting to hear something bad.

And it was always something bad, never something pleasant. Emma had noticed that you never waited for good news. If there wasn't anything wrong, a nurse either popped right out and sent you on your way or you received a short phone call at home, 'no, Mrs. Jekyll, no need to come in at all, the test results came back fine. We'll go ahead and cancel the appointment. You have a nice day.'

You only waited to see the doctor when something went wrong, only then did you have to come in to the office for a face to face. As if it was better because you sat across from him as he leaned over his desk and looked at you sympathetically while telling you everything in your life had just changed forever. Then he'd offer you the illusion of choices, letting you know he's considered all your options, weighed the good and bad of each for you. When he sat back and gave you a chance to think upon them and decide which one you wanted, there'd be a pause. No matter how little choice you had, you were expected to at least go through the motions of deciding, acting like you were moving forward with your life rather than sitting there desperately trying to maintain your composure and not break down in front of him. After a few moments you take the hope he's offered, usually the selection he preferred. He'd act pleased that you came to such a difficult decision, that you've obviously taken the first step of acceptance. Yet in reality you were just bullied into it by the unsubtle wall of diplomas and books behind him that let you know not to disagree with the nice doctor who knew so much more than you. Then he'd stand, rising from his chair and walk to your side of the desk, to let you know he understood what you must be going through, emphasized by a rehearsed gesture of compassion, a hand shake or some other form of contact. It was all supposed to be ok then, the doctor cared personally about you, you could tell by the sterile hand on your shoulder or the way he met your eyes as he said goodbye. You were supposed to deceive yourself into knowing you weren't alone in the world, that in twenty minutes he wouldn't be doing this all again with someone else, your case, if not completely forgotten at least at the back of his mind.

It was a stupid game, an ugly game, a useless game, one that did far more for the doctor's peace of mind than it had ever done for hers. Emma hated it and hated it far more with Dr. Jung than any other doctor she'd ever visited. He was a _therapist_; he should know better. He should understand that sometimes you need something deeper than just going through the motions. Still, all of that together didn't add up to what Emma truly loathed about this place, it didn't come close to what made her twice a week visits a pure hell. There was something worse than playing the game, worse than Dr. Jung's determination to remain detached. What truly killed her was that Emma wasn't waiting for herself. It wasn't her bad news that she'd been dreading every time she came in and reread the same articles for an agonizing hour. No, what tormented Emma so much about this place was that she was waiting to find out what was wrong with her son. Waiting to find out what was happening to Cody.

For three months she'd been coming here, ever since the supervisor at the pre-school had pulled her aside to suggest she consider seeking professional help. For three months she'd been making the long drive to come to this man in particular. This Dr. Jung, supposedly the best there was in the entire province when it came to child psychology. A brilliant man who couldn't seem to figure out what was wrong with her baby. For three months every visit had ended the same, a nurse escorting Cody back to the waiting room, the small brunette boy trailing behind the woman, a tiny hand enclosed completely in her cold, sanitized grip, as she lead him to his mother. Then the nurse would toss Emma one of those damned fake smiles and ask her if she had any problems making the next appointment, like the whole thing was as innocent and carefree as scheduled play-dates and haircuts.

And the entire time, every drive here and back to home, Emma was forced to descend to the same level as the doctors and nurses. She had to use that same 'everything is normal and fine' smile on Cody as he fidgeted in his seat with excitement on the way to the office. She'd have to act interested about the visit ahead; while Cody chattered on about the fun games Dr. Jung let him play. Then she'd have to act completely calm on the way back home as he talked about the funny pictures and questions the doctor asked, while inside she was pouring over his every word as her nerves frayed with worry over what decision Dr. Jung was drawing ever closer towards making.

Slowly Emma paged through the advertisements of a two year old issue of Vogue, wondering for the hundredth time what a Vogue magazine was even doing in the waiting room of a child psychologist. Odd choice as it was, it beat the alternatives, no way was she leafing through the children's magazines such as Highlights, or worn copies of Better Home and Gardens. The last thing Emma needed during these visits was to be reminded of happy children and idealistic pictures of perfect families and homes.

"Mrs. Jekyll?"

The sound of her name interrupted Emma's distracted perusal of the very outdated 'hottest fashions of the summer.' With surprise Emma looked up to see the nurse motioning to her. Emma looked at her watch; Cody's appointment was less than halfway through. When she looked up again she made a more disturbing observation: the nurse was alone. There was no tiny boy following, no angelic face to light up and rush to her with a smile. Cold certainty settled over Emma, the chill sliding down her spine to lodge itself firmly and heavily in her gut. She rose slowly, walking to the woman with a dragging step, almost wishing she was still waiting.

"Where's Cody?" Emma's voice came out panicked, higher than she'd expected. Nervously she brought a hand to her chest and tried to calm herself.

"The doctor would like to speak to you, Mrs. Jekyll."

Emma looked up sharply, that was not the answer to the question she'd asked! The nurse just smiled another of those hollow expressions of friendliness that never quite reached the eyes. Emma resisted the sudden urge to slap the smile from the woman's face. She fought down the desire to shout, to yell, to do anything to shatter the moment, before it carried itself to the dreadful conclusion waiting in the office at the end of the hallway. Instead she just brushed past the woman, steeling her nerves and stiffening her spine as she entered the door she'd only gone through once in the entire time Cody had been seeing Dr. Jung.

That last time, when she'd entered she'd been enchanted briefly, instantly relieved by the way it had differed from the offices she'd been in before. From the door all you could see was a wall taken up by large clear windows, letting beams of sunlight shine down on child sized chairs and tables, all made of cheerfully colored plastic. An assortment of bright toys and games shined in and reflected the light, set about in casual disarray, giving off the impression of relaxed informality and carefree innocence. Cody's brilliantly blue eyes had lit the first time he'd seen them. Dr. Jung himself had laughed as he tousled the little boy's sandy brown hair and indulgently told him to go play with whatever he wanted. Cody had cautiously looked up at his mother for her permission, ever the polite and considerate boy. All it took was a small nod of her head to send him off like a rocket, nervousness forgotten as he raced over to the piles of toys. For a second Emma had been filled with hope, this doctor might be different from what she was expecting; this whole nightmare might come to some happy resolution.

Then Dr. Jung had taken her to the other half of the office, the half that fulfilled every reservation Emma had of such miserable places, crushing that fleeting hope by reminding her that Cody wasn't here to have fun, he was here because something was wrong. Terribly wrong. It had everything she'd always hated; a gigantic ancient oaken desk, walls of books and far more plaques than could possibly be necessary, even an ancient bust of some long dead father of modern psychology. She'd been dreading her return to that deceptive office ever since.

And now she was back. Forewarned, playful little child's section didn't fill her with anything pleasant. Not even the view of Cody at play eased her mood. She felt none of the usual warmth as she watched him struggle to balance a pile of blocks, tongue sticking out distractedly as his tiny brow furrowed in concentration.

He sensed her attention, his blue eyes looking up and locking on her as he offered her possibly the first genuine smile the entire office had seen all day. It was an adorable smile in spite of the gap between his top front teeth. A tiny imperfection that Emma thought only made him look more perfect not less. The dentist had assured her that when his baby teeth fell out the replacements would undoubtedly grow in straighter, but a part of Emma almost hoped he was wrong and Cody would somehow keep that childlike little blemish. Would it be so wrong if he could stay a child forever?

Emma wasn't ready to face the alternative…but she'd been called in here to do just that hadn't she? With a sigh she waved and felt her stomach twist a little tighter as she returned his smile, thankful a thousand times over that little boy's aren't perceptive enough to know a real smile from a false one. All too soon his eyes tracked down to the blocks in his little hands and she turned away to face the side of the office that made her skin crawl with distaste.

Dr. Jung was already seated imposingly at his desk, surrounded by his trophies of learning. It was an unsubtle touch yet it still worked, playing on triggers in Emma's upbringing to associate such imagery with authority and obedience, hearkening back to her first trip to the principal's office. She sat down, knees trembling together and hands nervously wringing in her lap as soon as they were hidden from Dr. Jung's sight by the desk.

"Mrs. Jekyll," Dr. Jung's voice was already dripping with undoubtedly feigned sympathy, "I am afraid I have some bad news concerning your son Cody."

Unbidden Emma turned to look over her shoulder and find Cody again. He'd not moved, his head bent over his work while the soft beams of sunlight brought out hidden auburn streaks in his hair and cast his downturned face in shadow. In her heart she wondered if it would be the last time she could look at him like this, as just Cody, normal happy Cody. She was tempted horribly to leave then, close her ears to whatever Dr. Jung had to say and drag Cody from the office forever. Maybe if she ran fast enough she could escape the news that was waiting behind her turned back. It was foolish and she pushed the notion away. It was far too late for that now, it had possibly been too late the day he was born. She turned back around, hands gripping each other tightly and forcing herself to sit taller as she raised her tired blue eyes to meet the antique bifocals perched on Dr. Jung's nose.

"Wh-" her voice broke and she coughed lightly to cover the lapse before continuing, "What have you found? What's wrong with my baby?"

Dr. Jung looked down at his desk, idly leafing through an open file there before looking up at her.

"Mrs. Jekyll, I am sure you recall the reason you were recommended to come here, to consider his…issues with relating to his classmates."

Issues, Emma had to resist the urge to snort disdainfully at the careful word choice. Such a dry and clinically polite way to describe physically assaulting his classmates. Twice. The second time, a boy had been sent to the hospital for stitches afterwards and apparently it'd taken two teachers to pull Cody off of him. She'd refused to believe it at first, not her boy, not sweet little Cody. Yet there were too many witnesses to ignore, and then there were those damning bite marks on his teacher's arm. Sharp indentations still bright and red on bruised skin, each one a perfect tiny circle except for a telltale little gap. Yes, Emma recalled the reason perfectly. Sensing her discomfort, Dr. Jung accepted her curt nod, continuing when it became obvious Emma did not intend to speak of it.

"Well, yes, I have been talking with him extensively about this, and I'm afraid it's much more serious than we first thought."

Emma had been waiting for those very words, she thought she was prepared for them, yet she still felt her shoulders slump a bit, some of her resolve slipping.

"How serious, doctor? What's causing this?"

"Well Madame, it's not really a case of what…but who. Have you ever spoken with Cody about his friend?"

"Which one? He has a few at school, or…at least he did before all of this."

The doctor ruffled through the file, pulling out a few papers and pushing them across the desk. Emma lifted one hand from her lap, willing her fingers to stop their trembling as they rose from their hiding place below the desk and moved one of the papers closer for inspection. The first thing she registered was the crude boxlike letters of Cody's name in one corner identifying the artist. It was a picture, a crayon rendering of two boys at school. One was obviously Cody, the small boy wearing his favorite pale yellow shirt and his smile missing a single tooth in the middle. The other was unfamiliar to her, a boy in all black with green hair and an angry frown. Dr. Jung reached across and an ancient bony finger tapped the second boy.

"That one, Mrs. Jekyll. Duncan."

She looked at the picture, perplexed. She'd never seen a boy at the school with green hair; it was the kind of thing she doubted she'd forget. She looked up and shook her head in the negative. The doctor motioned the other papers and she looked at them all; the second boy, this Duncan, was in every one even, shockingly enough, the pictures of what she assumed was Cody's room. The ones of Cody and Duncan at home caused her the most discomfort and she looked up at Dr. Jung, biting her lip in worry.

"I…I don't recognize him at all doctor. And if he's been at our house it was never while I was home. Is this boy somehow connected to Cody's behavior?"

Dr. Jung reached across pulling the pictures back and neatly stacking them before returning them to the file. As he did so, he began speaking in an almost lecturing tone, for the moment forgetting his role in the façade to be sympathetic.

"No, I didn't think you would. When I first saw them I called his school; they have no records of a boy named Duncan, and certainly no children with such a…unique hair coloration. The truth is Mrs. Jekyll, there is no Duncan, or, should I say no such boy exists outside of Cody's head."

Emma felt a twist of confusion at the revelation. The doctor worded it as if it was some gigantic discovery, but Emma had been expecting something shocking, something to explain away the strange violent transformations in her son. She certainly hadn't been expecting it to take three months for the foremost child psychologist to decide Cody had an imaginary friend. She tried to keep her frustration in check, yet her next question was still given in a voice tinged with disbelief.

"So he made up this Duncan? Isn't that normal? Plenty of children imagine things that only they can see. How does this explain his attacking other children?!"

By the end of her question, she was higher in pitch and volume. She almost flinched in surprise at the hint of hysteria that had snuck into her into her voice. Quickly she looked over her shoulder and was relieved to see Cody still at work with the blocks, completely oblivious to her loss of control. She turned back to face the doctor, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead to try and keep calm. She finished weakly.

"I'm sorry, I just…I don't…what's this supposed to mean for Cody?"

"Mrs. Jekyll, while it is true that plenty of children have imaginary friends that is not what I believe is happening here. Duncan is not just some twist of playful creativity. Duncan is very real, at least to Cody. A dangerously powerful hallucination. Mrs. Jekyll, it is my belief that your son is suffering from something called schizophrenia."

"You mean like what that Sybil Shepherd woman had?"

"Goodness no. What you're thinking of is something called split personality, or dissociative identity disorder. You'll find that nowadays that condition has been almost completely discounted, I presonally beleive it to be sheer poppycock. Nothing more than a side affect of improperly applied aggressive therapy tyhat has been given false credence by Hollywood and a generation of poorly trained pop psychologists. No, no Mrs. Jekyll, I assure you, that kind of thing is completely nonsensical. Schizophrenia, however is very real, a biological condition that is caused by chemical imbalances in the mind. It can lead to random thoughts and feelings that can express themselves in startling behavior changes and instability. Among other things."

"Are you sure he has it? How could he have gotten it?"

"While it's exceedingly unusual to diagnose it in someone so young, considering my findings, I think there's a very real probability here. The condition is usually genetic, but can also be brought about or worsened by trauma. We can't be sure with the information we have as to why. Your medical records are clean, as is your families, but the information you've provided on his father's side is very…incomplete. I need to know if his family had any history of mental instability?"

Emma looked uncomfortable, one hand slipping slowly to the corner of her eye in anticipation of the tears she was fighting back at the memory of her husband. Tears she'd been fighting since his death two years before. Her lips trembled softly and her voice was almost a whisper when she answered.

"I…I'm afraid I don't have much to offer you. Henry was never...close to his family. I've never met any of them myself. They didn't even show up for his funeral."

Dr. Jung pursed his lips, clearly uncomfortable at moving into territory that strayed from his personal field of expertise. He coughed awkwardly and adjusted his bifocals to sit higher on his pointed nose before continuing.

"That must have been very hard for you," he paused, unsure what else to say before simply continuing with his questions. "Prior to his death, did Mr. Jekyll display any unusual behaviors? Schizophrenia can often express itself in mood shifts, paranoia, hearing and seeing things, increased isolation, and often depression," Dr. Jung's voice trailed off at the list before he coughed awkwardly and finished in a rush, "You also listed your husband's manner of death as an accident, but provided nothing further. I must insist on the details no matter how embarrassing or disturbing. I'm afraid I have to know, extreme depression and self-destructive behaviors are often symptoms of the late stages of schizophrenia."

Emma stared at him in shock, not quite believing she'd heard him clearly. Surely he hadn't just implied... The tears that had been threatening dried up instantly before a wave of rising anger. Cold steel edged her indignant reply and she slipped her hand back into her lap, concealing the clenched fist she was balling it into.

"Dr. Jung. My husband died in a car accident. I did not list the details, because I do not know them. I do know that he did not, ki-" she cut herself off, not even willing to give voice the absurd implication that her husband was suicidal. She leaned in to keep the rest of her words inaudible to Cody. "He woul dnever have done something like that. Henry loved Cody and I far too much to even think of-" Again Emma found herself stalling at even thinking of such a horrifying idea. Steering away from the thoguht she listed the facts for Dr. Jung as calmly and cooly as she could manage. "It was just a car accident. Henry often took long trips for work. He was trying to get back home early rather then spend another night at a motel, so he called to let me know he was driving through the night. The weather turned stormy and... He must have been tired, his car lost control. As far as the police could tell he slipped into oncoming traffic. His death was instantaneous. And three other people died in that pileup, even if Henry was...as you are implying...he'd never have done it in a way that might have hurt anyone else. My husband was a kind-hearted man. If your trying to blame this on my Henry, look for some other reason."

Dr. Jung edged away in response to her aggressive advance, one hand working to loosen the tie at his throat as he avoided meeting her gaze.

"Yes…well, the condition is not always just genetic. It can also be triggered by trauma such as that which might be suffered at the loss of a…" he coughed, "loss of a father figure. With or without genetic support, I still stand by the diagnosis. He shows a fairly large number of indicators."

Emma leaned back in her seat, the anger flowing out of her as she left the ghost of her husband behind and returned to the problem of the moment. Cody. She had to focus on Cody's needs right now.

"So…my son's…condition. What are these other indicators? Surely after three months you have something more solid than a few pictures."

Dr. Jung nodded as he reached into his desk, pulling out a worn tape recorder.

"There are several tests that I've proctored of course, but I think the most convincing thing I can offer you as proof is an interview with Duncan himself. I make it a practice to record the audio on all of my sessions. It helps to be able to review them later for things I missed during the actual notes, such as tone change, inflection, unusual hesitation…" Dr. Jung trailed off when he realized he was droning. He coughed and returned to the topic at hand, "I was asking him about the 'incident' with the other boy at school when I made this particular tape. I think you'll find…well, really you should just listen. It will make things much clearer than any explanation I could provide."

Emma nodded mutely staring at the old-fashioned tape recorder. Dr. Jung pressed the play and adjusted the volume to be low enough not to carry across the office. Soft static littered the background of the recording, a sign of the age of the device.

"_Now Cody, today I want to talk to you about what happened at school. Tell me about why you started the fight."_

"_I d-d-didn't do nofing. Momma says it's wong to fight, an..an' I wouwdn't do anyfing that's wong."_

"_But Cody, the teachers and all your classmates say they saw you attack that boy. If you didn't do it then who did?"_

"_It wasn't me. D-d-duncan did it."_

"_Ah yes Duncan, you've mentioned him before. How did Duncan make it look like you hit the boy? Do you mean he told you to do it?"_

"_N-n-no. I m-mean yeah, he towd me too do it fiwst, but I didn't do it. I d-didn't even when he yewwed at me. I couwdn't cause its wong. So then he just…" Silence except for a soft rustle of cloth, barely audible over the static, perhaps the sound of a small boy shrugging his shoulders. "he just did it." _

"_Duncan just hit the boy? Using your hand?"_

"_Yeah…"_

_Cody's voice trailed off miserably and for a few moments there was only the sound of a pencil scratching and paper rustling as Dr. Jung took notes._

"_Cody, do you know why Duncan would want to hit the other boy?"_

"_Cause he was cwying. D-duncan hates it when people cwy. It makes him mad."_

"_And why does Duncan hate it when people cry?"_

"_I don't know."_

"_Do you hate it when people cry?"_

"_Yes. They'we sad. I d-don't wike it when they'we sad."_

"_Do you think Duncan doesn't like it for the same reasons you don't? Maybe you and Duncan feel the same way about the crying?"_

"_No!!" Cody's voice took on an inflection of fear here as he spoke faster, his already childlike voice rising to an almost squeaky pitch as he worked himself into a panic. "Duncan an' I awent awike! I w-wanted to cheew Awex up with a hug. D-duncan wouwdn't hug anyone. He's too mean. He just want's to huwt peopwe! Duncan's bad, he's bad, bad, bad! I'm not wike him, I'm not!" By the time Cody finished his voice had trailed off to nothing but broken sobs. _

"_Cody…calm down. It's ok. I'm sorry I said that. You and Duncan are clearly nothing alike. You're a very good boy. Don't cry its going to be ok." Abruptly the sound of sobbing stopped almost mid gasp, dying off in a chillingly sudden silence. _

"_WHY? Why did you make him cry?! I HATE it when he cries! Shut up cry baby! Stop whining!"_

Icy fingers trailed down Emma's back, eliciting a shiver of terror in response to what she'd just heard. Her head snapped around to look at her angelic son still playing innocently with his blocks. Fearfully, her eyes trailed back to the tape recorder, the dawning horror finally breaking apart that dull weight that had settled in her stomach when the nurse called her name. It was melting it into countless flittering sensations of unease. Her fingers clenched the desk in front of her in a painful grip, the hard edges cruelly digging into her palms. She leaned inward, moving closer to the tape recorder and holding her breath to hear as clearly as she could. Emma knew that voice, any mother would recognize the sound of her own son, but she'd never heard Cody like this. No lisp, no meek tone, none of the cheery warmth that always made him sound so lively. It was harsh, biting, filled with a cold anger that was alien, different from anything she'd ever heard from him before. Hearing him like this, it took no stretch of imagination to understand how the boy being recorded could attack someone.

"_Cody? What's going on?"_

"_Leave me alone. Leave us both alone. You made him cry and now he won't stop!"_

"_Cody I don't understand you aren't crying."_

"_STOP calling me Cody! My name is Duncan stupid. I know I'm not crying, he is! Why would I cry? Just 'cause some stupid dork with glasses asked me something? He's the stupid cry baby! Now he won't stop it! He's in my head and he won't shut up! I HATE it! Make him stop! I hate it!" The sound of objects being swept off a table and onto the floor could be heard clearly._

"_Cody? Please stop. Cody….Duncan? Stop this Duncan. Nurse?! Nurse, come in, please…"_

_The sounds of a door opening and a brief scuffle could be made out through the static, as well as the muffled thumb of objects crashing against the carpet._

The playback stopped abruptly with a harsh click as Dr. Jung turned off the recorder. Emma turned glistening eyes to him in disbelief. He offered perhaps the first true sympathy of the evening as he rubbed his balding forehead awkwardly. He cleared his throat a few times before going on.

"Mrs. Jekyll, I'm very convinced of my diagnosis of Cody's condition."

"Wha-" Emma's voice broke again as she struggled to breathe around the tightening knot in her chest. She coughed violently to clear her throat before continuing. "What's going to happen to him?"

"Well if untreated, the condition can be expected to worsen. Eventually he will begin drifting more and more into this fantasy world and lose touch with reality. You can expect more outbursts as this Duncan figment begins to exert control over Cody's decisions. I'm afraid your son is very meek. Under constant pressure he will undoubtedly begin to give in more and more to 'Duncan's' suggestions, perhaps even deluding himself into believing he is becoming Duncan."

"So, this Duncan will take over my baby?"

Dr. Jung shook his head and clucked his tongue in disagreement.

"No, nothing like that. What you're suggesting is impossible I assure you. What you heard was not actually Duncan, I cannot stress that enough, it was Cody acting out under the delusion of being Duncan."

"But…that boy said that Cody was there with him…in his head, crying."

"Just another delusion, another voice he imagined up as crying in his head. It was always Cody the entire time. What you're worrying over, a person being trapped in their own mind by another fragment of their personality; it's the kind of thing that happens in a science fiction story, not reality."

Dr. Jung's voice had taken a dismissive tone as he waved away her most pressing fears. Though Emma was not in any way assured by his manner, she left the worry to the side to focus on the most pressing matter; the hope he had dangled in his words earlier, a cure.

"You said 'if untreated.' What kind of treatments are there? Can we get rid of this…this figment?"

"Well schizophrenia responds very well to medication. It is a chemical imbalance, after all. I've taken the liberty to write up a script for Thorazine. We'll start with this and see how he responds. If he still seeing and hearing things in a few weeks we can try Prolixin or Haldol. It might take some time but there's nothing to overtly worry about. There are countless medicines that have shown success in completely eliminating the hallucinatory aspects of the disorder. We will find the one, or combination of ones, to treat your son."

Emma nodded weakly, twisting inside at the idea of tossing pills at her child till one worked, but finding herself dumbly agreeing, her thoughts being numbed by a rising wave of despair.

"And if…when we find the right one? How long will he have to take it till this all goes away?"

Dr. Jung shook his head sadly.

"Mrs. Jekyll, I'm afraid there is no permanent cure for this condition. Medication can only relieve the symptoms, not remove the underlying cause. I'm afraid he cannot stop taking the medication. If he was to interrupt the treatment or something was to disrupt it, then his condition would begin to deteriorate again. This is something the two of you are going to have to deal with for the rest of his life."

Those words broke the floodgates, shattering what restraint Emma still had managed to hold. She'd always prided herself on her ability to maintain a calm public exterior even under extreme conditions, but how could she sit unmoved while being told Cody would never be able to have a normal life? She bent before the cruel weight that had been placed upon her shoulders, her face falling into her upraised hands to catch the tears that misery squeezed from stinging eyes.

Across from her, Dr. Jung squirmed uncomfortably, his specialty was children and while he'd dealt with grieving parents before, it was never something he'd gotten particularly good at. The skills one used for calming children were vastly different from adults, especially adults you'd just personally handed terrible news to. Fortunately for both Emma and Dr. Jung, there was someone present who was far better at the personal touch than the aged therapist.

Slowly Emma became aware of something other than twisting misery and the throbbing burn in her chest where her lung's ached at the burden of fueling her ragged sobs. A tight, warm constriction was squeezing into her leg and she moved her hands from her face to look down at her feet, where a small yellow blur clung fiercely to her. With trembling fingers she rubbed her eyes, to clear the unshed tears that were still distorting her vision. Red rimmed eyes looked down into two tiny blue irises that watched her, their shade the same achingly vibrant summer sky hue as her own, peeking thorugh soft brown bangs the way Henry's eyes always had. A small face pressed its check tightly against her knee, and she could feel the tremble of sincerity and emotion in Cody's tiny frame when he pleadingly begged her to stop.

"Momma, don't cwy. I don't wike it when you cwy."

Two emotions lanced through her bruised heart, love and fear both brought out by the innocently spoken request. It hauntingly reminded her of the recording, reminding her that crying had set off his last attack. It was a sickening thought to both adore you child and fear him, finding your maternal response inhibited by a wary caution, as you looked down at a face you knew so well and wonder what lay beneath it. Where she had faltered when it had only been herself, confronted by her child, and perhaps by another boy within, she found the strength to put back on that calm mask of acceptance and 'normality.' She sniffled once, and took a deep breath that turned into a choked cough, before letting one hand rest gently on Cody's head, ruffling those locks that were so reminiscent of Henry.

"I'm sorry baby. I'm ok now. It was just…I…I'm ok now."

Not entirely convinced, Cody did not relax his hold nor his concerned gaze in the slightest. Across the desk Dr. Jung broke their shared stare as he pushed a prescription across the table to her and cleared his throat to get her attention. She picked it up, reading it automatically though she had no actual knowledge of the drug listed or how to understand the instructions written there for the pharmacist.

"What's that momma?"

Emma looked down and debated the truth. It was a strange thing for her to have to debate. She was not a big one for fibbing to children. She'd never bothered with the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy, and only intended to bend for Santa for another year, just until he was old enough to understand he shouldn't say anything at school and spoil it for the other children. Such little lies were distasteful to her for all their innocence. It was one thing to put up false pretenses for the rest of the world, but she'd always stressed honesty between herself and Cody. It felt wrong wrapping children in a fantasy world that might do more harm than good in the long run when you had to confess the truth later. But this once was the real world just a little too much? Was being honest just an excuse for being selfish? Without Henry here, would she be telling him because she didn't want to have to suffer alone? Didn't Cody deserve a chance to live without worrying about this for a little while?

Emma finally made her decision. This was one secret that could wait. As long as was necessary. She would keep this one close until she was sure he could handle it on his own, till he'd found a way to fit in and enjoy that normal life he deserved first. In spite of her decision, an outright lie was so foreign to her that she couldn't just utter one to him. The best she could manage was to omit the truth. Most of it at least.

"Just a suggestion for some vitamins, dear. Dr. Jung thinks they'll make you feel a lot better and maybe even make Duncan go away, wont that be good?"

A wave of nausea slipped through Emma; a combination of the tense knot that had only just released its grip on her stomach in, her recent crying, and the sickening feeling she felt speaking a half-truth to her own son. For his part, Cody just looked up at her trustingly and nodded mutely, making everything even worse with how easily he believed her. Then Dr. Jung stood up, slipping into the final steps of the rehearsed game that had made her hate doctors so much. Emma flinched when his hand touched her shoulder consolingly, even though she'd been expecting it. She stood stiffly before looking at the doctor and feeling the fake smile grudgingly slip across her face.

She barely registered his parting words, though she did nod politely, mechanically playing her role. Outside, in the waiting room, sat the nurse. The interaction required another 'everything is normal' smile from Emma. A quick exchange followed with no real emotion behind it.

"No problems with next Tuesday. Yes, 3 o'clock will be just fine. See you then. Goodbye"

As she left the hated waiting room, she felt no relief, not even when a small hand slipped into her own and gripped as tightly as it could. She tossed a sad look down at her baby boy, before letting her lips pull upward into the same smile she'd offered the nurse. She could carry this one alone for now. Home would be just like one big doctor's office, she would keep the pretenses up no matter what she felt inside. At least for a little while. She could wait at home too, wait until he was ready. For Cody.


	2. Chapter 1: Facade

**Author's Note:** Whew, Chapter one is up. This should acclimate you with all but two of the dominant POV's used in the story, as well as Cody's High School friends. It's lovely to see all the hits this got, and I'm so very grateful for the encouraging reviews as well as all the story alerts! I hope you enjoy my portrayal of the actual TDI characters! As always thank you all for giving my tortous writing style a shot!

Much love, Sky

* * *

"Look around you!  
I have found  
You cannot tell, by lookin' at the surface,  
What is lurkin' there beneath it!  
See that face!  
Now, I'm prepared to bet you,  
What you see's not what you get -  
'Cause man's a master of deceit !

…

At the end of the day,  
They don't mean what they say,  
They don't say what they mean,  
They don't ever come clean -  
And the answer -  
Is it's all a façade."

~ Excerpts from 'Façade' as performed in 'Jekyll and Hyde'

**Chapter 1: Façade**

If there was one thing Cody was sure of, it was there were really only two kinds of people in the world. And he wasn't thinking girls and boys. Especially not after that health class freshman year where their overly PC teacher decided to tell them about "other" genders, as well as people who just didn't identify with the one they'd been genetically assigned. So with XX, XY, XXY, XXXX, and god knows what else, that division was out. Some might think to split them by personality, but there was no way to file that down to two categories. Even if you could split it into just two, such as good and evil, or more realistically outgoing and shy, you'd never find a person who would only fit in one. Hell depending on which people he was around Cody went from outright friendly to quite and reclusive. No physically and socially people were too fluid to divide easily. Except by one method, one fence everyone could pick a side for easily, all it took was one simple question. Are you a morning person?

Everyone everywhere had an instinctual response to being woken in the morning, a reaction that occurred before they had a chance to analyze their surroundings or gather their thoughts. Some woke up refreshed, a smile on their face to greet the brand new day. Others dug deeper into a cocoon of pillows and blankets the instant the first ray of sunlight lanced over the horizon and forced its way past the barrier of dark curtains draped across the window. The first group was the minority, as far as Cody was concerned, they composed a small percentage of the population that was certifiably insane. How else could they hop out of bed ready to run a marathon and engage others in cheerful conversation? To the majority of the world, the sane part, which Cody proudly belonged too, mornings were a painful and unwelcome end to a wonderful night. There was no 'good way' to wake up in the morning, just ways to cope with the unpleasantness. Coffee, hot showers, communicating with grunts and gestures, they were all acceptable ways to get through those hellish first moments of the day. The best solution of course was to skip the morning completely. Cody had a theory that the world would run a lot smoother if nothing started before noon.

It was a good theory, but untested because the masochist who'd invented school must have been one of those rare, evil morning people. Why else would there be a system where every kid in the country had to wake up before seven in the morning and make important decisions while still half-asleep? Challenging decisions like do I want Frosted Flakes or Fruity Pebbles? Or do grey shirts and jeans match? Do I have a test today? These were the kinds of things that required an alert mind, or at least a mind that wasn't operating in slow motion; preferably they'd be made by someone that hadn't been ripped from an awesome dream about being a reality-TV star by the steady and agonizingly loud sound of his alarm clock.

That damn alarm clock! Another of those 'wonderful' inventions of morning people that was obviously designed to ruin all the good times the normal people were having. In Cody's case, his good time was an awesome dream he was in the midst of having. He was about to win a hundred thousand dollars on a survivor island style TV show, poised to receieve the final marshmallow. Then a repetitive _beep-beep-beep_ had shattered the dream, snatching the potential babes, money, and fame from between his figurative fingers. Instead he had to use his real fingers to rub at his face tiredly, scraping enough of the crusty stuff off his lids so he could partially open his eyes. While squinting he searched for his alarm clock. As soon as he could make out the glowing red digital face, his fist connected with the top of the thing, much, much harder than necessary. The satisfying crunch was followed by relief at the abrupt death of the annoying sound mid beep.

With a yawn, his head fell heavily back onto his pillow and he slipped his hand back under the warm sheets while the thought, _ten more minutes can't hurt, _teasingly ran through his head_._ Before he could act on that excellent idea, a tentative knock sounded at his door and he let out a low groan. His mother, much to his misery, was proof that the morning person trait was not inherited. Worse, she seemed to think that he could be trained to enjoy mornings if she 'helped' the whole waking up process along. _How long will it take before she catches on that it's never going to happen? If the sky isn't sunny yet, I shouldn't have to be either! _

_At least now that I'm sixteen, I get a warning knock,_ Cody thought to himself, as the door opened after far too brief a pause. Prepared by years of experience, his arm flew across his face, managing to shield his eyes from the unwelcome glare of fluorescence as his mother flicked on the lights. Then a bustle of chatty energy and cheerfulness burst through the silence that he'd just beaten his alarm clock into submission to obtain.

"Rise and shine honey! You have to get ready for school."

"Mooooooooooom! Just a little longer." Cody replied. Or at least he tried to reply. What came out was something more along the lines of, "Mmmmm! Jus..alllit…grrrrr."

Emma, fortunately, had mastered the language of slurred syllables and groans that Cody preferred to use in mornings. She shook her head in disagreement, before realizing with his arm across his eyes he couldn't see her. Clicking her tongue disapprovingly, she wandered over and poked the offending arm, which only caused Cody to reflexively tug his covers up over his head to shield himself.

"None of that, young man! Last time I gave you just a little longer, you missed the bus. I'm not driving you to school today just because you want to be a lazy bones. Now. Get. Up!"

The last word was accompanied by a soft whoosh as the sheets were flipped off the bed with an expert tug, allowing both cold air and light to invade Cody's cozy nest. He glared up into the triumphant smile of his mother, before sighing and giving into the inevitable. He sat up in bed, stretching the kinks out of his arms and back while trying to talk around yawns.

"Ok, ok! I'm up! You win."

"I always do, sleepy-head," she smiled fondly at his grudging surrender. In spite of his words, Emma only released her grip on the sheets once Cody's feet had touched the floor. Even then she stayed in the room, just in case he planned on hopping back into bed the second she left.

Slightly annoyed by the hovering, Cody groaned and waved her towards the door with one hand while he used the other to steady himself as he stood up. Satisfied her 'evil' work was done for the moment; Emma at last gave Cody the privacy to change, closing the door on her way out.

With a low grumble Cody stumbled towards the dresser. When he opened the drawers he stared at the array of clothing dumbly for a second, before grabbing items at random. Thankfully most of his clothing fell under the shades of yellow, grey, or blue, so he didn't usually have to worry about matching.

_Of course I still have to get it all on right,_ he thought angrily as he ended up putting an arm through the neck hole of his shirt and getting both legs tangled in his jeans. After a few more false starts, he finally managed to get all the clothing on and facing the proper direction. He crossed his fingers as he headed towards the mirror, just because most of his clothes matched didn't mean every now and then his mother snuck something weird in there. His friends still teased him for the one time he'd accidentally gone to school in layered purple and green shirts.

_Whew, nice work. Classic Codester. The ladies won't know what hit 'em,_ he congratulated himself mentally for the awesome combination of grey long-sleeved undershirt and his favorite pale yellow polo. He wasn't entirely sure the green and red stripes on the polo totally 'worked' with the grey, but it passed any standards that guys had to meet for high school.

Satisfied with his outfit he turned his attention to his head. His hands ran through the auburn sprawl of hair clumped haphazardly above his eyes. His brow furrowed in concentration as he worked, not that he was attempting anything fancy, but it still required a lot of effort to straighten out all of the tangles that sleep had managed to twist in. With one last sweep he pushed the bangs away from the front of his face, letting them settle on the sides, then shot the mirror his best attempt at a sexy smile. It was a bit awkward looking, partially because Cody had no clue how in the hell a guy was supposed to smile, 'sexily.' What contributed far more to the awkwardness; however, was the fact that he was trying to smile without showing his teeth, because he pretty sure that sexy smiles didn't have huge gaps in the front. He wished he could be rid of the stupid hole, but his dentist had told him it'd require at least a year of braces to fix, which was definitely even less 'sexy' than the gap. He had enough obstacles in High School without being a junior in braces. _Especially since there's already a huge list of humiliating braces related nicknames going around that they use on that girl in Trig. What was her name? Bonnie? Bessie? Beth? Yeah that's it; Brace-Face Beth, heh. Of course considering how short she is, she's lucky no one's thought of calling her the Metal Mouthed Munchkin._

Cody chuckled at his own joke for a moment, before he felt a slight twinge of guilt for the nasty thought. That was followed by personal embarrassment when his consciousness reminded him rather cruelly that he didn't have any room to pick on someone else. Tech-geek wasn't that far above Brace-Face in the vicious High School food chain. He focused on his reflection, trying to convince himself that he looked 'good, awesome, downright studly,' but his heart wasn't really in the pep talk anymore. He turned away from the mirror and looked for a distraction; the last thing he wanted was to go to school already feeling like a loser. With a shrug he started cleaning his room, knowing that it would at least ease the guilt over the Beth thought if he spent a little time picking things up to make his mother happy.

Like most teenage boys, Cody's preferred natural habitat consisted of piled clothing on the floor, a desk covered in papers and debris, and tangles of sheets and pillows on the bed. Unlike most teenage boys, Cody actually cared about what his mother thought of his room, he was in fact a regular momma's boy though he'd deny it to anyone's face. This meant that whenever things got particularly bad in his room, he tried to set things right before it got to the point his mother would notice. And it wasn't just to make her happy. She was more likely to clean the whole thing herself than make him do it and who knows what she might 'accidentally' find when she did. Not that a few Victoria Secret magazines and a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition really amounted to much of an embarrassing 'stash', but it would be enough to convince her it was time for another _talk._ One birds and bee's lecture per lifetime was more than enough for Cody.

By the time he finished adjusting the room and grabbing his backpack, he was almost feeling ready to face the day, but something was still missing. Then the tantalizing scent of breakfast managed to waft its way from the kitchen downstairs up to his room, causing his stomach let out a low growl. _Yeah that's what I need, food! I guess morning people have a few uses,_ he thought with a grin of anticipation. He pitied the kids who had to make do with cereal or breakfast bars every morning because their mother's and father's were as slow to rise as themselves. There was definitely something to be said for starting off your day with French toast, omelets, or whatever else his mother felt like whipping up.

_Smells like pancakes today, but what kind;_ he sniffed cautiously trying to figure out the flavor from just the it was, his mouth was already watering and he took the stairs three at a time in his eagerness to get to the table, which was probably his mother's intention all along. _This kind of manipulation I can live with, much better than stealing my sheets._

As soon as he saw the kitchen table his eyes popped out and his smile turned on full grin, toothy gap and all. The sight before him was more than enough to drive away all worries about the embarrassing blemish in his smile. _Are those dots in the pancakes…oh please don't be blueberries…please be…YES! Chocolate chips! _

The assault that followed would have fit perfectly on any of those nature documentaries where they show lions or sharks tearing apart some hapless animal in slow motion. And it would have had to have been in slow motion to actually see any of it happen, the fork was literally a blur between plate and mouth. By the time Emma turned around from the stove to greet Cody the two on his plate were gone and he was already holding the empty plate towards her with a hopeful look.

"Cody! You have to eat slower! You're going to choke if you eat them that fast."

"Sorry mom, can I have some more," it was a heartfelt apology, though barely recognizable as one to Emma. Around a mouthful of pancakes the only words that actually managed to come out clearly where, 'mom,' and 'more.' This didn't bother Cody in the slightest since the only important part of the apology happened to be the 'more' part. He leaned in his seat to try and get a view of the stovetop behind his mother's stern form.

"I think maybe you've had enough young man. The last thing I want to do is start the day off performing the Heimlich maneuver! What would people say if they saw you eating like that? I'll tell you what they'd say, that your mother was starving you!"

"Awww mom! No one could think you starve me," Cody said widening his eyes ever so slightly and letting his lips form the faintest hint of a pout, "All my friends know you're the best cook ever! And you make the best pancakes!"

_Ok maybe I'm laying it on a little thick. _Just then Emma moved to the side and he caught a glimpse of the golden brown and chocolaty goodness that was finishing up on the stove. The sight drove the blasphemous thought from his head. For chocolate chip pancakes, there was no such thing as laying it on too thick.

With an indulgent sigh Emma rolled her eyes and took the plate from him to pile another pair of gooey melted happiness-inducing treats on the plate. Before she returned it to him her eyes fell on his placemat and she halted, holding the plate just out of reach as she gestured to the table. Where the plate had rested there was a haphazard pile of crumbs and chocolate dribbles left over from the first two pancakes. Her eyes; however, which had lost some of their happy twinkle, were resting on the untouched glass of milk, chocolate of course, and the two small white disks and single orange oblong pill beside it.

"Not another bite until you've taken your vitamins young man! You know how important it is to take them every morning. Who knows what you'll catch if you don't keep your body healthy!" Her voice was still light and teasing, but there was a hint of more subtle emotions underneath.

This happened every now and then, Cody wasn't even sure his mom was aware that sometimes her smile stiffened while her eyes turned flat and dull. It was always dealing with Cody's health, too. The time he'd had to go to the hospital because he'd gotten so sick he was feverish and delusional. Or when some guy had hit him in the fourth grade and he'd ended up in the school nurses office while they called to let his mom know he'd been hurt in a fight. Almost to fast to believe, she'd gotten there from her own work, by his side in the office telling him everything would be ok. But everytime he got sick or hurt, there was something missing from her voice while she comforted him. Like all the warmth and sincerity dropped out of his mom, and she was reading from a script. He had no idea why she got that way, but he had a few theories, and the top of that list was his dad.

That was only a guess, because so much about his dad was a mystery. Not that he hadn't seen pictures, or heard stories from his mom, but he had so few personal memories of the man, and he always wondered what kind of things his mom might have left out. Specifically he wondered if his dad had been sick a lot, or if poor health had played a role in the car accident. Maybe that was why his mom freaked out about his vitamins and over-reacted anytime he got hurt. It was just a theory though; there was no good way to ask your mom why she acted crazy sometimes and if it had something to do with your dead dad.

Whatever the reason, when her voice took that tone and her eyes lost their twinkle, he did whatever he could to fix it as fast as possible. If that meant he was the only kid in High School who religiously took his vitamins, and had a mom that insisted on showing up at school if he got so much as a scratch, he could live with that. If he was the expected to run from any fight, no matter how insulting the other guy was, because his mother abhorred violence, well he could live with that too. And it wasn't like he hadn't won a few small victories, he did get her to replace the Flintstones pills with Centrum after seventh grade, it made it a little less embarrassing. As for the other two pills, he wasn't even sure what brand they were, she ordered them special and always had them already laid out at breakfast. He'd asked once and gotten some long spill about pH balancing and Echinacea root or some other new age thing. What it was didn't matter, what did was that the explanation was delivered in that same deadpan voice and lackluster expression that Cody desperately tried to avoid bringing out of his doting mother.

That avoidance method of coping was the reason he now dropped his head and took all three vitamins without protest, downing half the milk just to let her know they were definitely gone. He looked up at her, trying not to let his concern show too obviously on his face as he examined her for the cue's that everything was ok now. Sure enough she reverted to normal, the tension vanishing and her smile softening as she set the plate down in front of him. The temptation of two more heavenly pancakes helped shove the whole incident behind Cody as well. He'd picked up the habit of pushing unpleasant thoughts away from Emma. Some would call it optimism, and they'd be right to a degree. The less charitable would call it escapism and they'd be right, too. It was a delicate mixture of the two that kept the Jekyll household operating so happily and smoothly. And if Cody let it spill over into his life outside of home, what was wrong with that? Without either trait to get him through the less pleasant aspects of High School, his weeks would be positively unbearable.

Cody settled back into his chair, preparing to 'slowly' demolish the next two pancakes when the doorbell rang. With a start he looked at the clock, realizing he'd lost track of time . He jumped out of his chair and raced for the door as if his life depended on it.

"I got it mom," Cody said on his way out, not that he really needed to; this part of the morning was very, very routine. It was done that way deliberately for the sake of person at their door. The person who always rang the doorbell at exactly 6:59 on a school day, so punctually that usually Cody headed for the door at 6:58. The few times he wasn't fully awake yet, his mom would handle the task just as quickly and earnestly, to make sure someone got there before the clock turned to 7:00. The alternative was to spend an awkward ten minutes out on the porch trying to convince his friend and neighbor Trent that it was ok to come inside before 7:09. Not that he wouldn't do it for Trent, but Trent would spend the whole time apologizing and trying to get him to go back inside alone and when they finally did enter, his mom would get flustered at the casual apologies Trent would offer for how bad is OCD was in the mornings before his meds kicked in. Then Emma would start staring at Cody oddly with that pained tight smile and the whole morning would just be a mess of weird. It was much better for everyone to get to the door before 7:00.

Fortunately for all involved, Cody got there with time to spare, in spite of being caught off guard. Through one of the glass panes beside the door he could make out the figure of Trent standing on the other side, decked out in green, the only color he ever wore, one more of his condition's quirks. Today it was a camouflage design army shirt underneath a pea-green t-shirt with a black handprint on it that Cody smiled at in recognition. It was one he'd gotten for Trent a few years back as a birthday present; a tour shirt from one of Trent's favorite bands, Nine-Inch(of course) Fingernails. Trent didn't notice Cody's inspection on the other side of the window, not with his eyes locked on the watch at his wrist. Even though Cody couldn't make out Trent's face from this angle, he knew the expression on it all the same. Trent would be wearing a mask of rigid concentration, staring at his watch with intense, unblinking emerald eyes as he counted out the seconds silently. With the delay this morning, he might even be nawing nervously at his lip a hint of panic slipping through his usually confidant demeanor. Rather than worry Trent any further, Cody all but ripped opened the door and was rewarded as the tension melted out of Trent's stiff shoulders. By the time Trent looked up and tossed him a casual grin, there was no hint of the strain that was surely on his face moments before.

"Close one Codester, you had me worried for a second. Taking your sweet time today? Don't tell me you were still upstairs practicing poses for the ladies again?" Trent punched Cody lightly to let him know the joke was all in good fun. While Cody rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed at the teasing, Trent strolled into the house without waiting for an invitation. Not that he really needed one anymore, his presence was expected and Emma was probably already putting food onto a third plate at the table. With a quick sniff of the air Trent's grin widened and he patted Cody's shoulder forgivingly. "Never mind, man. I know that smell! If its chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast I guess I should just be glad you actually showed up at the door at all. You weren't thinking of leaving me out there in the cold so you wouldn't have to share, where ya?"

"Trent, don't you trust me?" Cody replied with false innocence. Though the idea had never crossed his mind, it was awfully tempting now that Trent brought it up. Though truthfully his mom probably would have just brought two plates out and let them eat on the porch. She'd done it before.

"You know I do, man. Except when pancakes or chocolate get involved."

"Come on, like I'd put breakfast before a friend. No matter how gooey the chips are…or how fluffy the pancakes, the way it all just melts in your mouth…" Cody gut off with a grin when Trent's stomach growled in protest and Trent threw his hands up in surrender.

"No argument here, man. I'd leave you out there for sure if it was a choice between you and your mom's cooking."

From the kitchen Emma's voice cut through the playful banter.

"If you boys want to have the time to enjoy this breakfast before you have to catch the bus, you should stop just talking about my cooking and get in here to eat it!"

That was all the urging Cody or Trent needed, they pushed and shoved each other as they raced to get to the kitchen.

**

* * *

**

With a satisfied sigh, Trent leaned back into his seat, resisting the urge to slip his belt out a notch as he felt his stomach settle.

"Mrs. J, I know you hear this every morning, but you're the best cook ever," Trent said with a charming smile. To be honest, even if he didn't have OCD or think of the Jekylls as a second family, he'd still probably find an excuse to come over here every morning just for the food.

She looked up from her own plate tossing him one of those indulgent smiles as she patted him on the hand.

"As if I'd ever had any doubts, the way you two eat. Still it's very nice to hear. Thank you, Trent."

A soft moan sounded across the table and both Trent and Emma turned to look at Cody who was struggling with perhaps his sixth pancake. Trent had to fight back a grin. If there was one thing Cody didn't do very well, it was give up. A really awesome quality actually, except when it came to things he really should give up on, like trying to cram one last bite into a full stomach.

"Man it won't be worth getting it all in there if it all comes back up," Trent said only half jokingly.

"I guess," Cody muttered before leaning back and letting out a second groan as his stomach protested the motion.

Instantly Mrs. J was out of her seat and behind Cody, rubbing a hand on his back soothingly. Trent felt a moment of pity at what was coming; Cody was definitely in for an earful of mothering. For the sake of his friend, Trent quickly took his plate over to the sink, pretending to be very interested in cleaning it off. He blocked out the muffled conversation with the sound of the water faucet, trying to ignore the bits and pieces that he could still hear such as, "I told you so," "I'm fine, really," and "Not in front of Trent, mom!"

When he'd given it a few minutes to be sure the worst of it was over, Trent turned off the sink and dried his hands on a towel before turning around. Mrs. J was already back in her seat and both of them were acting as if nothing had happened, though Cody's cheeks were still tinted a shade of red. The look he shot Trent was one of pure gratitude and Trent pretended not to notice the blush the same way he pretended not to notice the argument. It wasn't like Cody didn't have a great deal more embarrassing dirt on him.

"So," Trent awkwardly tried to figure out how to restart the conversation, "we should probably be going soon?"

Cody jumped out of his seat, rushing his plate over to the sink to give it a much less thorough cleaning than Trent had. He was headed for the exit to the kitchen when his mom cut him off mid step.

"Not before you brush your teeth, young man!"

Cody flushed before nodding and heading for the stairs. For his part Trent just chuckled as soon as he was sure Cody couldn't hear him. Mrs. J turned at his chuckle and arched an amused eyebrow.

"Thanks for cleaning your plate so well," she said with a smile of her own, letting him know she'd noticed his little act of kindness towards Cody's embarrassment earlier. Trent shrugged his shoulders, not bothered in the slightest. It was kind of nice knowing that Cody's mom was so relaxed about having Trent in the house. If that meant she forgot to hold back on the mothering, well Trent wasn't going to complain, not when they felt they could be themselves around him. Especially since Cody and Mrs. J, were among the very short list of people that knew about Trent's own OCD issues.

He wasn't quite sure how the two of them were able to ignore his 'oddness,' but it was nice having people other than his parents who knew the most embarrassing thing about him and didn't seem to care. It definitely meant he could overlook Mrs. J's 'paranoid mom moments.' As he grabbed his backpack and headed to the porch to wait for Cody, he let his thoughts trail back to just how grateful he was for the Jekyll family.

It was pretty awesome how seriously Cody treated Trent's secret and his role in Trent's mornings, acting like it was an honor to be one of the only people in on, as he called it, the 'little nine thing.' And it had all started against Trent's will, at first. He'd told Cody only because his mom and dad had pushed the issue. Trent's parents got along so well with Mrs. J, that years back they'd decided to make her his emergency contact at school if his parents couldn't be reached. That meant they had to let her know just what kind of unusual 'emergencies,' Trent might have. Of course they'd told Trent that if Mrs. J knew, it'd probably be best if he told Cody himself, since it might come up if she had to pick Trent up at school. That part he'd resisted, especially since it might cost him one of the only friends he had around his home. Even worse, Cody could have made his life hell at school with that information and if there was one thing Trent never wanted to deal with, it was anyone at school ever finding out about his condition. That goal was only manageable because by the time he made it to the school bus, the worst was subdued by his morning meds and he could manage his way around the rest if he was very careful.

Of course, arguing with his parents was pretty useless, and in the end he'd given in and told Cody the whole thing. And to his huge surprise Cody never seemed to care one bit. Nor had he ever taken advantage of that information even though he'd had the perfect opportunity and motive only a few weeks after Trent had told him everything; a new girl had come to their school and for the first and only time in their friendship they'd found themselves fighting, competing to get her attention.

Those few agonizing weeks back in seventh grade when he'd first fallen for Gwen and realized Cody liked her too had probably been among the worst in his life. It was especially bad when he still found himself at Cody's doorstep at 6:59 every school morning. No matter what horrible things they'd said to each other the day before, Trent was dragged to their porch by a compulsive habit far stronger than any argument or hurt feelings between them. Thankfully, Cody had respected the little morning 'truce,' and never once ignored the doorbell, never used Trent's OCD to make him back off Gwen, and never used his secret to convince Gwen that Trent was a freak. Even more amazingly to Trent, the second Cody had figured out exactly who Gwen liked, he'd stepped out without a second thought, calling an end to their fighting by letting Trent know that Gwen actually had a crush of her own on him. Trent wasn't sure he could have handled that kind of rejection so gracefully, or been that generous to Cody if their positions were reversed. He definitely wouldn't have forced Cody to ask Gwen out, which was exactly what Cody had done to Trent, once they'd patched things up between themselves. Then a year later Cody was the one who'd pushed Trent into trusting Gwen with the OCD thing. No matter how much he'd resisted that idea at first, he had to give Cody credit; it had turned out to be one of the best decisions of his life since it made that precious list of people he could be himself around grow just a little bit longer.

No, all things considered, Trent owed one hell of a debt to Cody, one that was always on his mind whenever the two of them were hanging out. Not in the bad way like, 'I have to repay you,' but more that he was always on the lookout for some way to let Cody know just how much he appreciated the fact that the guy had always been there for him. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot he could do for Cody, especially at school.

Ever since Trent joined the soccer team and Cody got moved into the advanced classes, their social circles had drifted apart. They were still the best of friends at home, but at school they had totally different cliques and couldn't even manage to get their separate friends to sit at the same lunch table. Hell, Trent had enough of a time getting his teammates to back off on teasing Gwen, who could kick their asses, a fact they were well aware of from the way they got quiet when she glared at them. Getting his 'friends' to lay off Cody, who didn't look like he could hold his own against someone half his age let alone the walking walls of muscle that made up the jock table, was a lost cause. Worse, Cody let them do it without protest; the guy acted like he deserved everything they did just because they were popular. The few times Trent offered to step in and fix some faces, Cody had just gotten embarrassed and told Trent to let it go. Which he had done, grudgingly. It was a damn shame, because Trent sure that if they gave the guy a chance they'd see how awesome he was. And Cody needed that chance, needed to see it himself, especially since he seemed to hold the popular kids in some kind of weird awe, believing they were somehow better than him.

Trent was so wrapped up in his musings on just how much he wished he could fix everything that he never saw the shadow behind him. When an arm settled over his shoulders, Trent jumped in alarm.

**

* * *

**

Cody hopped down stairs as quickly as he could, worrying at how long it had taken him to finish getting ready. If Trent noticed he'd taken so long, the walk to the bus stop would be filled with jokes about him posing in front of the mirror again. Which was exactly what he'd been doing. Well, not posing, just trying to make sure he looked 'cool.' Today was important, huge; it was the day he would finally get his chance to fit in with Trent's other friends, and he didn't want to ruin it by looking like more of a dork than he already was.

When he stumbled into the kitchen Trent was already gone, only his mom was still there, cleaning up the cookware. She turned at his entrance and nodded towards the front porch with her head.

Satisfied they were alone he walked over to the sink and gave his mom a quick hug to let her know all was forgiven for the little scene in front of Trent. Then he turned and grabbed his backpack, rushing for the front door before she could use the opportunity to sneak one last bit of mothering in.

Trent was standing there staring at the road with his back to the door. With a smile Cody threw a casual arm across his friend's shoulder to let him know they could go, only to have Trent jerk violently in response.

"Dude," Cody said as he removed his arm at the sudden start of surprise from Trent. Instantly he was in front of Trent trying to get a look at his face, worried that something had set Trent's OCD off. There wouldn't be much time to calm him down before the bus arrived. Cautiously, Cody stared into Trent's eyes searching for signs of panic. "Trent, is something wrong?"

"No, man, nothing like that," he said, recognizing what Cody thought was happening, "I was just thinking about stuff, didn't realize you were there."

Cody held his stare waiting to hear just what sort of stuff was so serious, but Trent didn't elaborate, instead shaking his head and dropping the topic altogether. Cody didn't relax; he carefully watched Trent until the boy gently shoved him aside with a weak smile and headed towards the street. With relief Cody jogged to catch up, finally reassured that everything was okay. If Trent was having an actual episode, he defiantly wouldn't have smiled.

For a few minutes they just walked towards the bus stop in silence, both wrapped up in their own concerns. Once they reached the stop, Trent gave a start again, surprised that they'd already reached their destination. He turned to stare at Cody, only then catching on that the usually chatty guy was being equally quiet.

"Cody, is something wrong?" Trent asked, smirking as he echoed Cody's question back at him. He was grinning as he said it because, technically, 'something wrong,' was Cody speak for 'Trent are you about to freak out on me.'

"Nope, just thinking about stuff, forgot you were there." Cody grinned right back as he pitched his voice in a fair imitation of Trent's evasive tone and response from earlier.

"Funny, man! Only problem with trying to pull that on me is I can do…this," Trent struck quickly, and suddenly Cody found an arm locked around his neck pinning his head in place. Then with horror he watched as Trent's free hand moved threateningly towards his hair. From somewhere above him Trent teasingly finished his statement, "Now tell me what has the Codester so quiet or I'm giving you a noogie."

"No fair, I didn't make you tell me what you were thinking about!" Cody struggled against the grip to no avail as Trent's hand clenched into a fist and his knuckles inched towards the top of Cody's head. Cody tried to sound offended but he couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Only because you can't do this, and I can." Trent continued with mock menace.

"Fine I give, I'll tell," Cody surrendered. Honestly he knew he was in no real danger, at least never from Trent, but Trent would go through with the threat enough to mess up his hair and the 'freshly noogied' look wouldn't help him on today of all days.

As soon as Trent released him, Cody moved a safe distance before taking a second to straighten out his shirt and make sure everything looked okay. He then fiddled with fixing his hair, dragging the delay out in the hopes that the bus might come and save him. He already knew Trent would say about what he was thinking, so he'd hoped to avoid talking about it until gym class, when it'd be too late for Trent to try and stop him.

"Cut it out, Cody, I know what you're trying to do. Spill it or you go back into the headlock." Trent took a menacing step towards Cody just to let him know it wasn't a bluff.

"Ok, ok. I was just making sure you hadn't messed up my shirt," Cody lied unconvincingly. He deliberately studied his feet as he haltingly tried to let Trent know what he'd been thinking about. "It's not anything big man, I was just thinking, that...well today's the start of the new season, which you know already, being on the soccer team, and all…which is kind of what I was thinking about because I just figured maybe I'd …tryoutforthesoccerteamduringgym."

The last bit came out in a rush, and he tentatively lifted his gaze to catch Trent still staring at him clearly confused. Then as Trent finally made sense of what Cody had said, his face fell as he let out a very audible groan.

"Cody-" Trent began slowly and seriously before he was cut off.

"I know what you're gonna say already. You think it's a bad idea," Trent nodded his head in agreement with Cody's statement, but started to speak again, probably to tell Cody that bad wasn't nearly sufficient to describe just how terrible it was. Rather than give him the chance, Cody put on his best confident expression and forged ahead listing his own reasons why this could work out great. "Look I may not be all muscle, but I'm not slow. You know I can run pretty fast and that's way more important than how much muscle you have in soccer. And think about how awesome it'd be if I made it! We could go to games together, the guys wouldn't pick on me as much, I could finally get invited to the parties without you having to sneak me in, I might even finally get a girl to go out with me. I'm gonna do this, Trent; it's my best chance to make this year better than last and get in good with all the cool kids. No way I'd make it on the football or baseball team and I know I'm not hot enough to be popular without some help. Another year of Audio Visual club isn't going to make anything better, it has to be soccer."

Finished, Cody returned to examining his feet in silence while he waited for Trent to go ahead and tell him why it'd never work. Which was exactly why he hadn't wanted to tell Trent in the first place. Now Trent would just worry about the whole thing and, worse, feel guilty all morning until gym knowing that there wasn't anything he could to help or stop Cody. He might be co-captain this year with Tyler, but he still had no say in who made it on the team; only the psychotic and scary Coach Chef, who also happened to be their gym teacher, had any say in who did and didn't make it.

"Look, Cody, I know Coach and the other guys. I really don't think that's the best-" Trent's words were drowned out by the loud rumble of a massive engine.

_Saved by the bus,_ Cody thought happily as the yellow and orange vehicle surged to a stop in front of them. With a frustrated glance at Cody that let him know Trent was in no way happy about this turn of events, Trent turned and resignedly walked onto the bus. Yet as soon as he finished climbing the stairs into view of the other students, the resignation vanished and his back straightened as he settled into being the guy that the rest of their school knew and envied. Someone shouted his name loudly and he waved at his friends as he headed towards the seat they'd saved for him. With casual ease, Trent strode past the packed students, completely ignoring the adoring looks from the girls and envious stares from the guys he passed. All too soon he was with his friends in the 'cool section,' surrounded by the other elite of Wawanakwa High. Cody, on the other hand, sluggishly inched his way down the aisle, all too aware of every person he passed and how not even none of them bothered looking in his direction as he went by. Ahead of him Trent reached the back, trading a friendly punch with a kid in a red jumpsuit, probably Tyler, the only guy who actually wore tracksuits to school and somehow managed to pass it off as acceptable. Cody felt a little guilty at the hint of envy that snuck into his gaze at his best friend getting along so well with everyone. Then Trent vanished from sight as he claimed one of the seats always left empty for him.

When Cody had asked enviously, what it was like back there, Trent had insisted there was nothing special about sitting back there, the same way he said there wasn't anything better about the people he hung out with at school. To prove it he'd actually dragged Cody back once last year. The experience had been a nightmare; Cody had spent the entire time in awed silence, fully aware of the stares and looks he was getting from the other guys. Not that they were openly rude about it, at least not with Trent watching, but they defiantly ignored him as much as they could. He'd tried to start a halting conversation with the guy in the seat with him, a scary looking giant of a kid named DJ. DJ just stared at him dumbly and nodded a few times, clearly not interested in Halo, which for some stupid reason was the only idea that had popped into Cody's head. The second he stopped talking, a guy in a cowboy hat leaned over the seat and started talking to DJ about a party the night before. It was painfully obvious to Cody how grateful DJ was for being saved from having to talk with the dork. Cody was sure that as soon as he left the group at school, and they were out of earshot of Trent, they'd all started making fun of him. Despite Trent's effort that day he only became more convinced that there was something better about the popular kids and something incredibly wrong with him. The only thing he'd learned from that experience was that if was ever going to make it as one of them, he'd have to do it without Trent's help.

Apparently his distracted pace as he fought against his unfair envy of Trent was to slow for the driver's taste. The entire bus shook as the engine revved in an unsubtle hint that he should find a seat. Caught off guard by the vibration, Cody stumbled unsteadily and barely caught himself from tripping by resting a hand on the nearest seat. His ears burned red as they caught snorts of laughter from the people in the closest seats who'd noticed his near fall. Without turning to meet the gaze of the laughing students he stood back up and moved a little faster towards his own 'saved' seat, which was definitely nowhere near the back. It wasn't that the seat was reserved for him either, or that any of his fellow students kept it empty out of respect for him. No, the reason the seat was empty was fear, because it happened to be one of the four seats within punching range of the seat claimed by most terrifying student in the entire school, the female juggernaut Eva Brawn.

For his part Cody wasn't afraid of Eva. _Well that's not entirely true, I'm not afraid that she'll attack me for sitting there._ Of course Cody was a little afraid of her, anyone with common sense would be. Unless she had her headphones on, she was an inhuman monster, who could only communicate with shaking fists and guttural growls. With her headphones on, she was slightly better, calm enough to resort to murderous glares and grunts for expression. There were rumors that she was on anger management, but if she was there was no sign of improvement in her behavior. Honestly, if she was actually on anger management, Cody suspected that somewhere in the city there was a terrified therapist who probably went to their appointments in a full body Nerf suit. Cody wouldn't have been surprised if her own parents were scared of the touchy tomboy. Even the teachers stepped quickly out of her way when she moved through the halls. There were only two people in the entire school who weren't at least a little intimidated by her preference for non-verbal communication, and only one other person other than Cody who was understandably intimidated but still willing to sit this close in spite of his fear. Those three people were the closest thing Cody had to a posse, four if you included Eva, which he only did when she wasn't paying attention. It was safer to assume she was a friend, than ask and get punched for his troubles. The worst part would be that he'd probably never know if the punch meant yes or no, unless he asked her to clarify, which would provoke another enigmatic punch, resulting in a never ending cycle of violence.

He took the seat in front of Eva, settling down beside a guy in a dark green hooded sweatshirt and blue skater cap. Ezekiel shot him a half-hearted grin before nodding his head at Eva's seat behind them.

"You should be careful today, eh. Somebody forgot to charge their Ipod last night. Now she's in one hell of a mood. I'm not surprised, really. You know how bad girls are with forgetting stuff."

Cody froze, staring in open mouthed horror at Ezekiel's words, before quickly shrinking himself into a smaller target to avoid being collateral damage when Eva unleashed her endless fury on the misguided misogynist. When a few seconds passed without Eze being ground into a pile of human hamburger, Cody relaxed slightly, even more so when he saw the cocky grin on Eze's face.

"Cut me some slack, eh? I'm not that stupid. She's borrowing Izzy's Ipod, so she doesn't accidentally kill anyone in one of her psycho chick rages. Granted, she's definitely not happy about it. No clue why she should care. They're both girls, they gotta listen to the same girly music, don't they?"

Cody groaned, but decided not to bother explaining to Eze for the hundredth time that not all women were the same or liked the same things, especially not Eva who only barely qualified as a woman anyway. Hell, sometimes Cody wondered if Eva was even human. She probably put the angriest of grunge rock under the, "soothing sounds," section of her playlist. As for Izzy, god knows what she listened to but he was sure that it wasn't the kind of stuff that Eva would enjoy.

Cody finally settled back into the seat without fear, at least if Eze was making sexist comments openly and not suffering for it, then Eva must have the Ipod on loud, probably hoping that volume would make up for whatever the music was lacking in terms of bass and screaming. Cody considered Eze a moment. Other than Eva he was the next closest to being more an associate than a friend. If anything they were friends by default, simply because Cody could tolerate Eze's eccentricities and Eze could tolerate anything. If it wasn't for those two facts they'd never have gotten along, like almost every other student didn't get along with Eze. It wasn't that Eze was a bad person; he just suffered the huge handicap of having been homeschooled prior to High School. His world views were seriously twisted and he had no concept of what it was and wasn't ok to say or do. He'd taken at least two or three beatings a week from Eva alone his freshman year, and probably a half dozen more from other students. He bounced back surprisingly well from everyone of them, showing in almost inhuman tolerance for pain and remarkable recovery rate. No fist or foot ever seemed to make much of an impression on him, either physically or on his behavior. Now that they were in their junior year Eze was finally able to move through the halls without trouble. Not because he'd cleaned up his act much, but because most people considered him not worth the effort. It was boring to pick on him simply because it was too easy and he didn't seem to care one way or the other. Even Eva only hit him when he really deserved it now days and without any of the enthusiasm she usually showed when she had the chance to inflict violence on people or objects.

"I know you don't really believe that stuff anymore Eze, so why do you still say it?" Cody said at last, when it became obvious Eze would keep pressing buttons until he said something.

"No harm in teasing people, eh? It's good for them and its fun for me."

"I don't know about that, there's serious harm in teasing some people," Cody said nodding his head towards the seat behind them meaningfully.

"True," Eze shrugged, "but that just makes it more fun when you get away with saying it." Eze finished that with proud grin, before holding out his hand, clearly expecting a fist bump for that pearl of wisdom.

Cody shrugged before giving in and quickly tapping fists. He didn't exactly agree with that rather dangerous life philosophy, but he couldn't leave the poor guy hanging.

"Besides," Eze finished with satisfaction, "what kind of guy would keep quiet just 'cause he was scared of a girl?"

A fist connected brutally with a portion of the seat between Cody and Eze. Both boys followed the impressively muscled arm all the way up till it connected with the dark blue shirt that clothed the glowering figure of a very unhappy Eva. An Eva who was not wearing Izzy's Ipod anymore. Twin gulps were audible from both boys.

"A smart guy," Eva answered Eze's question with a mutter that was closer to a growl than actual words. Then she turned that fierce gaze at Cody and nodded her head sharply towards her own seat, "Move it, shrimp. We're switching places. I can't take another minute of Izzy's happy techno crap and it looks like I need some other way to vent 'till I get to school and I can recharge mine. Lucky me, Ezekiel has volunteered."

Cody didn't need to be asked twice. Eze had definitely gotten himself into this one and if Cody resisted, Eva would just take it out on them both. With a sympathetic glance towards Eze, who was trying and failing to maintain a cocky unconcerned expression, Cody hopped out of his seat. He heard the bus driver swear, undoubtedly angry that some kid was standing while the bus was moving. The bus driver's voice cut off abruptly when Eva stood up next, one fist pounding into her other palm as she traded seats. Not even the bus driver was going to complain if Eva was the reason people were moving around. All around them, students were shrinking back into their seats, the entire middle of the bus falling as quiet as a forest when a hungry predator was on the hunt. For all his brave words about not being afraid of girls, Eze looked an awful lot like a one of those forest critters now, a rabbit gazing up into the eyes of a wolf. A particularly nasty and hungry wolf that was probably rabid.

Cody inched past Eva. He slid into her seat the second he was sure he wouldn't accidentally bump her. Once settled he deliberately turned to face the seat behind him. Partially so he wouldn't have to watch the carnage about to ensue, but mostly so he could talk to the two who always took the 'danger zone' seat behind Eva, Noah and Izzy. One more reason to not argue with Eva about the seat change, since it put him one seat nearer to the two who were the closest Cody had to real friends other than Trent.

Izzy wasn't even sitting in her seat properly, not that she ever did anything properly. She was kneeling on it, so she could rest her hands on the back of Cody's seat to try to get a look at what Eva was doing.

"Ooooh, that's gonna sting. He should really learn to block better if he's gonna say stuff to make her mad." Izzy commented on Eze and Eva matter-of-factly.

The seat in front of Cody shook for a moment and Izzy only grinned crazily, before suddenly remembering Cody was there. Executing one of her lightning fast mood changes, she forgot all about watching the beating to turn her attention on him. Cody's vision filled with red hair as Izzy leaned in, ignoring little things like personal space as their noses practically touched. Cody's eyes filled with green, crazy green, with a hint of wild green and psycho green mixed within.

"Um Izzy? What's up?" Cody managed to ask as he backed himself against the window to try and put a few more inches of space between them.

"Up? That's up!" Izzy replied pointing at the ceiling above them. Suddenly she twisted around to stare upward, somehow bending backwards over the seat without snapping her spine or slipping. "It's the opposite of down, which is that way." Helpfully Izzy pointed down, and then frowned as she realized that from her current position the down she was pointing to was actually the back of Cody's seat. "No wait…down is that way," her finger pointed towards the window behind Cody. Frowning again she twisted around while muttering, "Wait, don't tell me, I know how to find it!" She kept moving and twisting until her stomach was resting on the back of Cody's seat. As her hair fell in a thick wave of bright curls she squealed happily. "Found it! Just follow the hair, it always falls down!"

"Izzy, what the hell are you doing? You're feet are everywhere! You kicked me twice! I almost lost my place?"

A genuine smile lit Cody's face at that complaint, a smile triggered when he heard that mixture of irritation and boredom that only one person he'd ever met had mastered. He copied Izzy's own pose, kneeling on his seat so he could peek over the edge and look down at his favorite member of their little group.

For his part Noah looked up at sudden extra head popping over the seat in front of him with an arched eyebrow and what Cody hoped was the faintest hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

"So you're the reason she's flailing about in an epileptic fit? Thanks a _ton_, Cody."

"Happy to help," Cody grinned in response, ignoring the sarcasm dripping from Noah's words. He was pretty sure Noah didn't mean it, at least not with his friends. He just had forgotten how to talk without putting that little edge in his voice.

Noah rolled his eyes and returned to reading the book in his lap. Which was just fine with Cody since that left him free to study Noah unobserved. Noah was the biggest enigma in their little gang. The one person that Cody couldn't quite figure out. He was like one of those games they give kids where you have to look at a bunch of shapes and figure out which one didn't belong. He made no sense to Cody no matter how often Cody puzzled over him. And Cody puzzled over Noah a lot. Probably a little too much, but he rationalized it by pointing out that other than Trent, Noah was the most interesting person in his life. All the rest of his friends were either easy to figure out or impossible. Eva was an open, albeit scary book, a Steven King classic or some other psycho thriller work. Eze was equally easy to read, if dull. And Izzy, well she wasn't an open book. She was an entire encyclopedia, unabridged. She was puzzling, but in that theoretical way, like one of those unexplained mysteries of the universe that was never going to make sense because it was far too big for a single person to ever figure out. Noah on the other hand, Cody was sure he could figure out with enough time. And he really wanted to do just that because for some reason Noah had something Cody wanted desperately in life. Noah was happy with who he was. He was with the people around him, not because he had to be, but because he wanted to be. He didn't care about what everyone else wanted, thought or needed. And he didn't need or crave the level of social notoriety that Cody thought meant everything.

Everyone else in their little group was there, because there weren't really any other options. No one else wanted to get close to Eva, and for good reason. No one else could stand to get closer to Eze, also for good reasons. As for Izzy, it would take a pencil and paper to track all of the different reasons most people would avoid her. Not that any one reason was particularly serious, there were just an awful lot of them. As for Cody, he had no illusions about himself. He was the essence of un-cool in spite of all his attempts to be otherwise. He was a little too happy, a little too nice, a little to boring, and definitely too timid. A doormat put up more resistance to being walked on. He was completely unable to hold a conversation with anyone without making a fool of himself and couldn't seem to ever make a good first impressoin. Or second or third for that matter. At least when Eze did it he had the excuse of his upbringing, Cody had nothing to blame on his problems but himself. Worse Cody was a wannabe and it was so painfully obvious even to himself.

But Noah? He could have belonged to any clique he wanted to if he tried. That part was so maddening to Cody, Noah could have anything Cody wanted so desperately but he just didn't care to. It was like being thirsty without any money, while having to watch someone throw away a full soda next to you because the vendor had accidentally given them regular Coke instead of Diet.

Oh sure Noah, might not be athletic, but that was about the only thing he wasn't against a huge list of things he was. There were plenty of people at Wawanakwa High who were popular without being jocks. Noah could talk to anybody about anything, if you could convince him it was worth his while. Cody knew that for a fact, he'd spent hours talking with Noah while they played games or just sat around his room. He was one of the few people Cody had never had to feel self conscious around, since no matter what random thing blurted out of his mouth, Noah could take it and make it interesting. More impressive, Noah could engage Izzy in conversation without getting confused, and was the only person at school who could say anything to Eva without getting pounded. Well technically Izzy could get away with saying anything to Eva too, but only because no one was ever sure if even Izzy knew what she was actually saying. Noah was also the only person who was genuinely amused at almost everything Eze had to say and never bothered to look over his shoulder or look uncomfortable while laughing at one of Eze's jokes.

He was probably the smartest kid in their school, a fact he wasn't very humble about. His sense of humor might be dry but it was sharp as hell, he could pull off funny without batting an eye, and usually did, delivering his comments with a deadpan unblinking expression that only made them more hilarious.

He seemed to understand their fellow students far better than Cody could, spotting all the flaws Cody missed easily, and at least with their mutual friends, the few positive things Cody sometimes overlooked.

He also wasn't that bad to look at. Not that Cody would ever admit that last part out loud. In the privacy of his mind; however, Cody was comfortable confessing that Noah could easily pull 'hot' off if he ever bothered to dress in something other than sweater vests and polo shirts. Even in sweater vests he managed 'really attractive.' He had perfectly toned skin that he didn't have to tan to maintain. And chocolate brown hair that naturally fell in smooth waves past his ears, somehow looking stylish yet casual, without ever requiring any effort on his part. Then there were his eyes, so dark brown they were almost black, two dark, bottomless pools that you could drown in, losing track of the hours while you tried to find the point where the iris ended and the pupil began. Eyes that could in a single glance let you know how worthless you were if you were on his nerves, or freeze you on the spot with their intensity if you had his undivided attention.

All together it was very, very unfair, just how good Noah had it, and how little he seemed to care. Cody had in the past wasted entire bus trips staring at the boy while he read, trying to figure out just how Noah could be so damned content with a book and a few oddball friends while Cody was going crazy wishing for more. He might have done it this trip too, if he hadn't become aware mid thought of the feeling of very warm breath on his cheek. With a start his eyes jerked to the side, where Izzy was hovering a few inches away, staring at him as silently and intently as he had been staring at Noah.

He jumped in surprise as he shouted.

"Izzy?! What the hell are you doing?!"

She grinned goofily at Cody a moment before realizing he'd asked her a question.

"Playing the staring game!" She responded with an innocent smile.

"What are you talking about?"

"The game you always play with Noah. He stares at his book, you stare at him. Izzy wants to play to, so Izzy stared at you! Only you stopped playing." She bit her lip a second and stared at him quizzically, "Does that mean you won, or Izzy did?"

Cody felt a blush color his cheeks and his eyes quickly snaked towards Noah, who was looking up at both of them in confusion and irritation at the conversation occurring over his head that was interrupting his reading.

"I, I wasn't staring at Noah. I was just staring at the spot…where he was." Cody finished lamely while trying to control the burning in his face.

Izzy somehow believed him, which was pretty odd in itself, but at that point Cody was far more worried about whether or not Noah was buying it than Izzy. It wasn't that he thought he was doing anything wrong watching Noah, but the last thing he wanted to do was come across as more lame than he already was. Noah would probably think it was pretty pathetic that Cody spent so much time wishing he could have it as good as Noah did, especially since Noah didn't particularly seem to envy anybody. Fortunately, Noah seemed to be far more concerned with where they were having their conversation than what it was about.

"Why are you two arguing right over my head?"

"Sorry Noah," Cody muttered before inching his way back into his seat. At least that was what he tried to do. Unfortunately, Izzy wasn't going to let him get away while she was still waiting on an answer to her own question. With one hand she casually snagged the back of Cody's shirt, effectively preventing his escape.

"No! You don't get to leave yet! You were staring at something and Izzy was staring at something. Now you have to tell Izzy who won, the one who screams or the one who keeps staring!"

"What are you talking about," Noah asked tiredly as he slipped a bookmark into the book on his lap and closed it with a sigh. Cody could sympathize with Noah's frustration even if he was part of the reason Noah's enjoyment was ruined. When Izzy wanted an answer, no one got anything done until she got it.

"Izzy was staring at Cody and Cody was staring-" Cody managed to cover Izzy's mouth with his hand before she could finish her description of their 'game.'

Noah's eyebrow arched higher at that action before he turned his full attention on Cody, who squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny. To make matters worse, Izzy was sniffing his hand experimentally and he suddenly remembered how very fang like her teeth were. He snatched his hand back before she could get it in her head to bite him.

"Riiiiiiight," Noah stretched the word out. "So you two were playing the staring game? Isn't the point of that to not blink? When did screaming become part of it?"

"Um, it didn't? She's just being Izzy," Cody offered weakly.

Noah shot him a look that somehow boiled a world of meaning into a single unspoken word, _duh._

Cody was reminded of his earlier thoughts on Noah's eyes now that he was the unfortunate target they were currently boring into. They could definitely freeze you on the spot when he wanted them too, and neatly dissect you like a bug while they had you pinned down. With a helpless shrug he scrambled to find reasonable explanation for why he'd screamed. Fortunately Izzy had finally pieced together the information she needed from Noah's response and saved him. Sort of saved him anyway.

"So, the winner is whoever doesn't blink? Darn it! Izzy doesnt know who blinked first. We'll have to stare at each other to know! Rematch!"

With that she grabbed Cody's face roughly tearing him free of Noah's piercing gaze, and filling his vision with psychotic green eyes.

"Can you guys at least do that in Cody's seat and not right on top of me?" Noah managed to ask relatively nicely, mostly for Izzy's sake, Cody was sure. For some reason he could be remarkably tolerant of Izzy, at least compared to almost everyone else. Izzy grunted in response, not wanting to ruin her concentration by taking the effort to form an actual reply. While somehow maintaining her animal like stare and rock hard grip on Cody's face, she slid and crawled her way from Noah's seat to Cody's. For his part Cody tried to control the watering in his eyes, certain that if he couldn't keep this game up at least until the bus stopped, Izzy might get bored and go back to her seat and tell Noah just what Cody had been staring at first. With resignation he met Izzy stare for stare and tried not to think about how incredibly unnerving it was to be stuck literally looking into the face of madness.

**

* * *

**

As Izzy somehow managed to crawl over the seat while holding a clearly terrified Cody in her hands, Noah had to bite back a laugh. He felt a little sympathy for Cody, but it was his own fault for challenging someone as competitive as Izzy to any game, no matter how harmless it might seem. When she at last slipped into the seat in front of her, Noah decided to take advantage of the now empty seat. He quickly brought his legs off the floor, stretching them out on the comfortable space as he leaned against the cool metal of the bus wall. His hand fingered the cover of the book a moment as he contemplated going back to reading. With an imperceptible shake of his head he abandoned the idea, they were fairly close to school and by the time he finally managed to get back into the book he'd just have to stop again.

_Great, another morning wasted. I won't have a chance to finish this chapter until gym. _It was tempting to be irritated, but what was the point? He could blame Izzy for staring at Cody; he could blame Cody for playing with Izzy. Or he could blame Eva for switching seats with Cody. Or blame Eze for needling Eva. While he was at it he could just blame all their parents for conceiving them for all the good it would do him. In the end it boiled down to one little fact. Unless he wanted absolutely no friends at all, he had to accept the fact that some days he just wouldn't get to do what he wanted.

_Ah, no friends at all, isn't that a nice thought?_ Briefly Noah debated just how much better life might be if he wasn't saddled with such high maintenance associates. Between tutoring Eva and humoring Izzy, it was amazing he ever managed to finish a page let alone a book. Things were a little better with Cody and Ezekiel since he could still get in some video game time with them, which was almost as good as reading. Except that when they all played together it was always just fighting games, no rpg's or solitary ones.

Secretly, Noah knew he enjoyed their company, even when they used up all the time that he could be spending doing what he wanted to do. Yet he couldn't help but feel a little unappreciated, since it often seemed that none of them noticed just how much of his precious time they all used up. How could they not realize how much more he could be getting done without all their silly problems?

_Just think of what I could do if I didn't have to deal with any of it._ No Eva to keep from trying to kill people. No Eze to try and keep from inciting people to want to kill him. No Izzy popping up with randomness and crazy schemes and games that you had to play or else. No Cody…well Noah really didn't want to think about that last one. There wasn't anything really wrong with time spent with Cody. He didn't have any issues with giving Cody however many hours of the day he wanted. Unfortunately that in itself was a problem. A problem with a capital P. Noah was smart enough to figure out the reason why he enjoyed time spent with Cody over his favorite novels and video games. Especially when he enjoyed that time even as Cody wasted it talking about the stupid people at school, or complaining about how much he wished he was cooler.

The Problem with all of that was the reason Noah kept a silent running tally of every point Cody had ever made about how lame he thought he was, and found an argument for every single one. That Problem was what caused him to bury his face in a book whenever Cody started looking at him too intently, thankful that his skin tone was dark enough to make blushes hard to detect. That Problem was also what forced Noah to bite his tongue when Cody started listing the things about himself he wanted to change. That Problem was what drove Noah insane sometimes, until he just wanted to grab Cody by the shoulders and shake and yell until the idiot realized there were more important things in life than the adoration of the brainless sheep that made up their high school class. Things like being appreciated by the few people that liked Cody just the way he was. Things like being adored by the one person who wouldn't change a single thing about him at all. Except maybe the part where Cody was straight, that part Noah wouldn't mind changing a little, but everything else was just right the way it was. _Ok let's not go through this again brain!_

Maybe he should have kept reading if that was where his thoughts were going to slide today. He'd had just about enough of his little Problem over the past few months. There wasn't a damn thing he could do about it, and it wasn't in his character to cry and mope over something he couldn't change. Not that accepting the impossibility of the whole thing made it any easier.

With a sudden jolt the bus stopped breaking Noah free of his insidious thoughts. From the seat in front of him Izzy let out a loud scream and several students nearby jumped. Noah stood up slowly, slipping his book into his backpack and looking over the seat in front of him at a furiously blinking Cody and a madly grinning Izzy. Obviously she had won, though why she felt yelling was part of the winning process in a game where you were supposed to keep quiet and stare made no sense. Not that it needed to make sense if it involved Izzy.

As he handed Izzy her backpack, his own slipped off his shoulder. With a silent curse Noah reached down for it and when he looked up Izzy and Cody were already gone, lost in the mass of students that were filing slowly past Noah. He realized he'd missed his chance to get into the aisle before a line formed and worse his friends had left without him. Now he'd have to force his way in alone. He studied the line of students unhappily, searching for someone appropriately small or bashful enough that he could edge his way in without too much effort. He was saved the trouble when the entire line of students stopped moving forward and actually started retreating. Eva had pushed her way in and rather than head towards the door was actually walking towards the back of the bus. Several students were cramming into seats to get out of her way, while others just pushed back into the people behind them until the line was compressed. Eva didn't stop till she reached Noah's seat, at which point she turned back around and stood in place, a line of pinched and squeezed students holding its breath behind her as she blocked the flow of traffic. With a cocky smirk for all people not lucky enough to be on Eva's very tiny good side, Noah slipped into the empty aisle without a struggle and strolled casually off the bus. Outside Izzy, Cody, and a remarkably healthy looking Eze were all standing in a circle, clearly waiting for him and Eva.

Noah gave them his best, 'what on earth are you guys still doing here,' look before rolling his eyes and pushing past them to lead the way to school. He didn't bother looking over his shoulder; he knew they were all right behind. More importantly he didn't want any of them seeing the genuine, smug free smile that was creeping onto his face. _Ok maybe I'm not THAT unappreciated._

**

* * *

**

"Typical Noah, eh? He doesn't even care that we waited," Ezekiel muttered as soon as the know-it-all was far enough ahead to be out of earshot. He was usually indifferent to whether people heard his comments, but Eva had just finished 'explaining' the finer points of tact, giving him five very good knuckle-shaped reasons to keep his voice in check for the day. Well, maybe not the day, but at least the next hour.

Cody shrugged indifferently next to him, forcing Ezekiel to groan in irritation. What was the point of saying something if no one reacted? Ezekiel would take a pounding from Eva to being ignored any day of the week. He turned his head to the left, hoping for better from Izzy, who at least always had something to say- even if it rarely had anything to do with the conversation going on.

For her part, Izzy was staring at Noah's back in intense concentration. "He's smiling," Izzy replied to Ezekiel's questioning poke.

The idea was preposterous; Noah, smile? Grin, sardonically perhaps. Smirk, most definitely. But smile? As in corners of the mouth turned upward, no hint of sarcasm in the eyes, and no mocking curl of the lip? Next Izzy would be telling him Eva was secretly a cheerleader and Cody was a jock.

"Yeah, right. Don't think he can, Izzy, he hasn't read a book on how to do that yet." Ezekiel chuckled at his own joke.

A pair of green eyes turned their freakishly intense attention onto Ezekiel and he couldn't help but notice a surprising amount of redness and tearing in that owlish gaze.

"Uh, Izzy. Is something wrong with your eyes?"

"Yes, Izzy's eyes are dry today. Very sore."

"Have you tried blinking?" Ezekiel felt a little silly making the suggestion, but when dealing with Izzy it was always best to consider every possibility.

Izzy turned her head a moment, cocking it to the side like a curious canary, before rapidly blinking her eyes. Stray tears leaked from the edges of her lids, a clear sign that the moisture must have been gathering at on her eyes for at least a few minutes.

"Ahhhhh. Much better. Izzy can't believe she forgot."

There were a number of questions running through Ezekiel's head at that moment, the most unusual being how anyone could forget to blink. Knowing there was little hope of a reasonable answer other than it was just an Izzy-thing, Ezekiel opted for the second most unbelievable mystery; 'How could she think Noah was smiling?'

Ezekiel turned to mimic Izzy, even going as far to squint and narrow his field of vision to nothing but the blue shirt and red sweater vest ahead. He even stared until he felt the strain of dryness on his eyes, wondering if not blinking had something to do with it. Ezekiel could not discern any change to Noah's normal arrogant stride or rigid posture, nor any other clue as to what might be hidden on the front of his face. _Can she really tell? Or is she just being Izzy?_

In spite of her casually forgetting to blink, he honestly considered her opinion, wondering if she might have some way of knowing he didn't. It wouldn't be the first time women's intuition weaseled out something he'd missed. Though he still made sexist comments, he had come to appreciate the mysterious workings of the opposite sex in his time at High School. These days when he let something insulting slip out about girls, it was almost out of habit, a gut-response desire to entertain himself by irritating the girls around him. Two years in the public school system had managed to convince Ezekiel that his dad was dead wrong on his theories about the 'weaker sex.'

At least his dad was off where the women in Ezekiel's life were concerned. One look at Eva disproved every claim that boys were tougher than girls. Old leather wasn't even tougher than Eva. As for the rest of what he'd been taught growing up, Ezekiel had come to learn it was all equally wrong. Especially the boys being smarter than girls crap. Sure, a boy was in the number one spot in all of their classes both years, but it'd be hard to imagine Noah getting anything less. But Beth had breezed past Ezekiel in every class, and the best he'd managed in the Honor Roll was sixth last year, with every single student that placed above him other than Noah having a double X chromosome. That part he definitely didn't bother telling his dad when it came time to turn in the report cards. Come to think of it, Ezekiel didn't bother telling his dad a lot of what happened at public school. It took him eight years to convince his parents to let him go, and he never got over the paranoid fear that he could be stuck at home again in a heartbeat if he ever let it slip just how much he learned at school that had nothing to do with academics. Wasting away the rest of his teenage life until the legally free age of eighteen in that tiny cramped home only able to interact with his very narrow minded family was a fate worse than a hundred poundings from the student body.

Speaking of student bodies... The single biggest reason Ezekiel was very determined to spend as little time at home as possible was some the discovery he'd made when thrust into the hormonally charged atmosphere of High School, his attraction to both girls and guys. There was a certain dark irony in the fact that his father had spent a lifetime putting down women and teaching Ezekiel the finer points of machismo, only to end up having a son that, at least to his father's narrow point of view, might as well have been a daughter if not a step below. Not that Ezekiel acted feminine, certainly not with his upbringing, but he wouldn't bank on his father being able to work out that a boy could like both boys and girls, and still be relatively 'normal acting.' Nope, Ezekiel was definitely never bringing a boy home to meet pop. Then again, considering his dad's attitude towards women, he wasn't likely to bring a girl home, either. Unless he wanted to really piss her off. That meant nothing really serious or experimental at school, who knows what might come up during a parent-teacher conference. Then he'd have to bring the girl home when his parents found out about her, or if it was a guy, probably put hide him in police protection. The downside to living carefully was that sex was probably going to be something that had to wait until college, when he'd managed to put at a hundred or so miles between himself and home-sweet-home. Now that was one hell of a problem, because sex was…well, as a virgin, Ezekiel wasn't sure what sex was…but he was damn sure having it was better than not having it.

_Woah…why did I start thinking about sex again?_ Unlike most of his male classmates, Ezekiel tried his hardest to shy away from worrying about what he wasn't going to be getting for a very long time. College was far enough away without him dragging out every minute between now and then wishing for the unobtainable. So why was it suddenly on his mind? Ezekiel shook his head and returned to what he'd been doing prior to that distraction; staring intently at Noah's backside to find clues as to what might be different that would hint at a hidden smile. Nothing was off that Ezekiel could tell, anyway. Same stiff shoulders, same girlishly slim hips, same effeminately pretty hair, same tight little ass. _Well, I don't know how Izzy can tell if he's smiling, but at least I know why sex is on my brain. Damn Noah for being so…Noah! _

Ezekiel needed a diversion; unfortunately his best two methods for killing thoughts about sex by distraction, Cody and Eva, were about to head off towards a separate homeroom from the rest of them. Both were so very easy to get riled up; Cody in defense of women, Eva in offense of men. The best part was both were better than baseball and cold showers for getting Ezekiel out of the 'mood.' Eva would have to make up her mind on a gender before Ezekiel could bother determining if she was a hot…girl…or guy. As for Cody, he could be attractive…maybe…if he could be himself first. As it was the guy was so hell bent on hating who he was that it made it hard for anyone else to like him. That and even if Cody could look in the mirror without frowning or posing, he would still be way too bashful and well… cute. Cute and shy weren't sexy, at least not to Ezekiel. They made Ezekiel feel a little dirty and crass. Arrogance, devastating hotness, wildness- now those were sexy adjectives. This was why Ezekiel desperately did not want to be walking to homeroom behind Noah and beside Izzy. One had arrogance in spades, the other was wilder than those animal attack shows on Fox, and both were walking stacks of sexiness in their own way.

As Ezekiel was bemoaning his bad luck, Noah halted, having reached the point where they split into two separate groups. He held still a moment, before turning, and in his head Ezekiel almost heard a dramatic, dun-dun-duuh, as Noah's face slowly came in view.

_Izzy must be off her rocker, that's the same smirk he always has._ Ezekiel examined Noah a little closer, 'just to be sure.' Until he realized that a close examination of those tense little lips locked in that arrogant grin was just going to cause a slew of dirty thoughts about better uses Noah could put his lips too.

Suddenly Cody and Eva were off, with Ezekiel having missed the entire parting conversation, all thanks to Izzy's smile comment and his own damn hormones. _No big loss, I'll see them both in gym soon enough, I just have to get there without going crazy. I'll have to talk to Izzy_.

Now normally, Ezekiel was the fist to admit that talking to Izzy and staying sane were not mutually compatible. Considering her gorgeous figure and that deadly combination of red hair and green eyes that just accentuated each other to new heights of, 'wow,' Izzy was also not a normal choice for trying to drive away horny thoughts. She was; however, slightly less tempting than his current alternative. Noah was in sexily arrogant mode non-stop, while there was always the chance Izzy would be in one of her crazy moods. Crazy, at least as far as Izzy could carry it, was sometimes scarier than it was seductive. Settling for the lesser of two evils, Ezekiel tried to re-engage Izzy in conversation as they waited for Noah to resume heading off to their homeroom. Of course it would have been a lot easier to talk to Izzy, if she would actually look at him, but she was back to staring at Noah. At least, Ezekiel assumed she was staring at Noah. He was not about to follow her gaze and end up right back where he'd started the last time he did that.

"Uh, Izzy?" Ezekiel tried to regain her attention.

"Shhhhh, Izzy is watching Noah watch!"

"Watching Noah watch… That doesn't make any sense. Who's he watching, eh?"

Izzy didn't turn her face to Ezekiel, but he could still tell she was rolling her eyes as she replied, "If Izzy knew who Noah was watching, she wouldn't have to watch him watch. Izzy is watching Noah to find out who Noah is watching when Noah doesn't know he's being watched."

"Who would Noah watch, when Noah doesn't know-eh someone was watching Noah watch, eh?" Ezekiel messed up the tongue twister of a statement, pleased that Izzy had succeeded in getting his attention off of sex.

"Cody," Izzy responded unusually softly, so as not to alert Noah. Even soft it held something of a hint of 'eureka,' to her tone, as if she'd solved a difficult puzzle at last. The solution was so unlikely, that Ezekiel didn't realize for a moment that she'd been answering his riddle.

"Cody? Ha. Good one, Izzy," Ezekiel replied around chuckles. Meanwhile, Noah had finally turned away from their departing friends to head towards their homeroom.

Izzy preened at his response ignoring the mockery and doubt in his tone, "Thank you. Izzy saw all the signs lately that Noah was watching someone with his heart. Izzy is glad to have solved it."

"Watching with their heart, eh? Izzy, it sounds like even you don't know what you're talking about…" Ezekiel felt a headache coming on. He had quite the odd conversation on his hands, and it was tempting to forget the entire thing, but he'd decided to user her to escape the dizzying Noah-induced allure, so he had to deal with the mess he'd started.

"You know..." Izzy gestured vaguely with her hands as she tried to articulate the subtle hints she'd picked up on, "Gripping…wrong word…Crushing!"

Ezekiel stared at her dumbfounded. The great and aloof Noah harboring a crush? The idea was unthinkable. Partly because Noah didn't like ANYBODY, but mostly because even if Noah did…Cody?! It wasn't that Ezekiel didn't think Noah could be into boys, Ezekiel rather hoped Noah could. That imagery was great fodder for some dirty thoughts. But, seriously…Cody? Izzy saw his disbelief and assumed it was purely for the idea that Noah might be crushing.

"Noah shows signs," Izzy continued adamantly. "Quiet sighs when we all split. Being happier than…Noah should be. Lately Noah's too patient with Izzy and Eva. Noah's too nice with Ezekiel and Cody. Noah was acting odd, Izzy was sure it was someone, not something. But most importantly," her eyes locked on Ezekiel with deadly earnest, "Noah is reading too much."

Ezekiel laughed with relief. For a second he had almost believed there was something to her claim, but that last statement reassured him that this was just an Izzy moment. _You've been around Izzy too long Ezekiel. You're forgetting to doubt half of what she says and ignore the rest._

Izzy growled a little, knowing the laugh was at her expense. Ezekiel immediately cut off his laughter and raised his hands defensively. An aggressive Izzy was strangely scarier than Eva. Eva only had one way to express her rage, god knows what Izzy might do if she was angry.

"Sorry, Izzy," Ezekiel began calmingly, hoping she didn't notice the hint of a smirk still on his face, "It's just…Noah reading too much? How is that a sign, eh? How can you even tell what too much is for the bookworm?"

"Not too much," Izzy's face contorted a moment in concentration as she began to pound on her own head with a fist. "Not the right words. Noah is…reading…too much, to not be reading more. Noah is reading, but not really reading." In frustration at Ezekiel's querying look following her confusing statement, she walked up to Noah and slipped a hand stealthily into his backpack. She turned around and moved back to Ezekiel flashing the 'Three Musketeers' in Ezekiel's face triumphantly. "See?!"

"Izzy, it's the Three Musketeers. Noah loves that book," Ezekiel began slowly. "What is this supposed to prove, eh?"

Izzy groaned, before waving the book in front of Ezekiel again as if it contained some secret he was missing. Finally she spoke slowly as if he was the crazy one and she was the one explaining the obvious, "Two weeks Noah has been reading this. Noah was reading it in the library while Izzy and Cody were finishing a project. Noah was reading it while all of us watched Kung Fu movies at Eva's house. Noah is still reading it now. 'Cause Noah is reading but not reading!"

_Two weeks? She has to be wrong. Noah has finished longer books in only days._ Again Ezekiel was back to wondering if her insane hypothesis might be right. He thought back, trying to see if he could recall Noah being unusually distracted as of late.

Izzy's suggestion was insidiously powerful. All too soon little events were popping into his mind that he'd overlooked. Noah getting quiet and flustered when they all had to change for gym. Noah fading out of a debate mid-argument when Cody popped up and asked him a question. Most telling of all, Noah losing to Cody lately in Smash Brothers. That was more proof than the Three Musketeer's and a thousand little sighs. Noah usually kicked Cody and Ezekiel's asses even when they paired up against him and he took characters by random. Yet just last week Cody had beaten Noah one-on-one with Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff!

Under that kind of proof Ezekiel was convinced and now he had to fight back the urge to laugh…or cry. On one hand Noah being gay and in love with Cody was just too hilariously funny to not laugh at. It'd be awesome to see Mr. Cocky lusting after the most oblivious kid in their High School. There was too much irony in the ida of that unflappable self-assured pinnacle of arrogance tripped up by the most self-hating poser at school. But on the other hand, Ezekiel only thought the past two years had dragged by slowly. Having the temptation of a gay Noah around, moaning for Cody of all people, Ezekiel's next two years of abstinence till college would seem twice as long. But then, what if Noah could be swayed to give up on Cody? Who knows…maybe it wouldn't be a two year wait after all. Noah was one of the only people Ezekiel could trust to understand his messed up home situation and be discreet. His parents already let Ezekiel spend huge quantities of time at Noah's house. There was potential here, but god knows for what. No, this news was huge, but whether it was a good or a bad thing…Ezekiel needed time to think.

Izzy read the dawning comprehension on Ezekiel's face. Satisfied she'd succeeded, she turned and slipped the book back into Noah's backpack. Ezekiel's silent pondering went uninterrupted, as Izzy returned to his side yet remained quiet, choosing to abandon the entire argument without a second thought now that she'd won. Soon they reached homeroom and filed into it, all of them in their own little worlds. Noah was undoubtedly wrapped up in some Cody-related fantasy; Ezekiel groaned at that particular thought. Izzy was undoubtedly flipping between countless dreams and fantasies with no rhyme or reason. As for himself, Ezekiel squirmed and twisted throughout the entire homeroom period, trying his damndest to figure out if he should be excited, amused, or miserable.


	3. Chapter 2: Noah's Reasons

**Author's Note:** So sorry for the delay, school and other writing projects dragged out the time so long. Still with summer coming hopefully it gets faster now! In the meantime, thanks for the alerts, faves, and reviews! It's all so very encouraging!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy this update!

Sky

* * *

"(Simon) What kind of man  
Is this you've taken?  
Can you not see,  
The kind of life  
That this would be?  
You are mistaken?

...

(Emma) - I must  
Pick whom I prefer!  
I'm not the weak young thing  
You're seeking, Simon,  
Someone seventeen, obedient and sweet.  
I am not the protégée  
To waste your time on.  
I'm complete-  
In Henry's eyes I see  
What I am meant to be!"

~ Excerpt from 'Emma's Reasons' as performed in 'Jekyll and Hyde'

**Chapter 2: Noah's Reasons**

The last five minutes of homeroom were perhaps the longest in Cody's life. Every time he looked up the second hand seemed to be moving slower than it had the last time he peeked at it. Not that it stopped him from checking. He couldn't shake the worry over the tryouts that would take place during first period. He'd managed to put it from his mind while on the bus. Handling Noah and Izzy had kept him completely occupied. Unfortunately, in homeroom there was nothing to distract him from the upcoming gym class. No one in his homeroom ever tried to talk to him except on occasion Eva. Today even she hadn't had the time for him. She had rushed ahead of him into homeroom and stormed over to one of the empty computers to plug her IPod in and begin charging. The teacher hadn't even bothered recalling her to her seat, merely marking Eva as present and moving on when the girl showed no intention of responding or removing her headphones during roll call.

After another peek at the clock, where he could almost swear that the second hand had somehow moved backwards since his last look, Cody finally forced his attention away from the tormenting timepiece. Instead he started counting the lines in the wooden finish on his bare desktop, while his hands fidgeted with the straps of his backpack. He hadn't bothered pulling out his notebook, or anything else to read, keeping it all packed for a quick getaway. He had every intention of speeding to gym quickly, changing, and being out of view before Trent, Ezekiel, or Noah could show up in the locker room. The first might try to stop him, and the other two would undoubtedly want to know why he wasn't ditching to go to the library, since students not trying out were given the day off from gym.

When the bell finally did sound everyone was taken aback at the yellow-grey blur that zipped out of the door before the first ring had finished blaring. Cody breezed through the mostly empty halls. He made it to the locker room before half the students in the school had even finished putting their books away in homeroom. He skidded to a stop in front of his gym locker. He drew a shaky breath as he started thinking about the tryouts as well as his need to get changed quickly. It was here that he lost some of his lead as he fumbled with sweaty hands at the locker dial. It required three attempts before he finally calmed down enough to get it right. When it finally clicked Cody slammed the locker open, tossing the backpack in and reaching for his school-mandated white gym shorts and shirt. Not quite sure how he managed it, he got his jeans off without undoing the shoes. He congratulated himself on the time saver but lost his satisfaction as he hiked up the ridiculously tiny shorts.

He frowned as he contemplated the sad fact that his gym shorts ended only halfway to his knees. He'd failed in every attempt to convince his mom that he'd grown enough to require new gym shorts. Still, he managed to find one positive note in the mess. _At least I'll be used to it if I make it on the team. The soccer uniform shorts are even shorter than these are. _

His introspection ended when the changing room door opened as other students strolled in. With a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure it wasn't any of the people he was trying to avoid, Cody went back to changing in a rush. Foolishly he attempted to pull both overshirt and undershirt off in one quick yank. It didn't go over to well. His chin caught on the collar of his polo shirt and his arms ended up stuck in the long-sleeved under shirt. With a mental groan of frustration Cody managed to free his arms, but wasted precious time trying to untangle the sleeves from the polo, so he could get at the collar. When he finally finished removing them both, he wadded them into a ball in irritation before shoving them into the locker. He turned to grab his gym shirt from the bench only to find himself face to face with Noah and Ezekiel, both of whom were staring at him as if he were insane.

Cody audibly gulped before slowing his movements to something less frantic as he tossed an _all-is-cool_ smile to them. He nervously reached towards the bench and picked up his t-shirt, idly twisting it to keep his hands from fidgeting too noticeably.

"Hey guys," Cody winced at the slight crack to his voice when he tried to throw out a casual greeting.

"Where's the fire, 'eh? Is something up?" Ezekiel asked.

"N-n-no, just excited for gym class today," Cody began, a light blush tinting his face as he uttered the ridiculous lie.

Ezekiel snorted, while Noah's lips curled in a hint of a sardonic smile, both clearly thought he was making a joke. Noah's gaze slipped downward and the smile that was forming at the edges of his mouth faltered. Assuming Noah had noticed the T-shirt he was mangling; Cody stilled his hands and lifted the shirt to put it on. Noah's gaze jumped back up to Cody's face at the motion and for a second Cody would swear Noah's tan cheeks turned darker. Before he could check to be sure, Noah averted his eyes to the wall of lockers, suddenly interested in examining the different hanging locks. With a shrug, Cody finished pulling his shirt over his head. He forced his head through the neck hole with an almost audible pop. _I really need to get a whole new set of gym clothes, even this T-shirt is tight_._ Though I guess that's a good thing, I may have actually put a tiny bit of muscle on since freshman year_. Cody snorted, amused at his own wishful thinking. In the meantime Ezekiel's eyes tracked from Noah to Cody and back. Cody noticed this only when Ezekiel's easy smile turned into more of a smirk.

"Well hate to ruin your excitement, but we don't have gym today, eh," Ezekiel couldn't contain the pleasure in his voice at the announcement, "Today's psycho Chef's chance to flip out on the soccer team tryout victims, remember? We get to ditch for the library. I can't believe you forgot." There was genuine surprise in Ezekiel's voice when he said that last part. It really was hard to believe anyone could forget such momentous news as a day away from their murderous gym coach. The pleasantness faded into something a bit teasing as Ezekiel finished up, his attention sliding from Cody to Noah at the last moment, "So how 'bout you strip out of your tiny shorts and get back into your street clothes so we can get out of here, eh? "

Noah who had been turning his head to re-enter the conversation, abruptly stopped at that commend and returned to examining the lockers on the wall. Cody blushed furiously at the teasing over the length of his gym shorts, something he was already painfully aware of. Cody barely paid attention to Noah's reaction; just grateful Noah was attempting to politely ignore his embarrassing gym outfit. For some reason Ezekiel seemed more amused at Noah's reaction than Cody's blush, even though the joke had been aimed at Cody's stupid shorts. Whatever the reasons, Cody was grateful that his friends weren't looking directly at him. With neither one currently paying attention, what he had to say next was made easier…slightly.

"Um, I'm not going to the library," Cody managed to say the entire statement in an almost confidant voice, until both of his friends gazes snapped to him, sharing looks of confusion. The sudden attention shattered the false bravado he had worked up. Cody began studying his sneakers with fascination.

"Where else would we go, eh?" Ezekiel trailed off, clearly waiting for Cody to tell them where he wanted to spend their free period.

Cody forced his gaze up from his shoes, avoiding Ezekiel's dumbfounded look, instead focusing with trepidation on the rapidly dawning comprehension in Noah's eyes. _Leave_ _it to the know-it-all to figure it out first_. Cody waited for the verbal barrage of sarcasm. Noah always had something to say when one of his friends was being silly. Already Noah's face was slipping into that cynical, half-lidded expression he took when he was about to point out how incredibly stupid someone was being. Cody closed his eyes and bit his lip, determined to endure the teasing. _It will be worth a thousand jokes from my friends if I can get in, because no one else will pick on me anymore._

With his eyes closed, Cody never saw the cynicism deflate, his own clear worry draining the wind from Noah's sarcastic tirade. A very foreign expression of sympathy flashed across Noah's face, before he marshaled it into a neutral stare. Thankfully the transformation went unnoticed as Cody's eyes were still shut and Ezekiel was still staring at Cody, waiting for an explanation.

"You sure about this?" the question was as surprising for its softness and concern, as it was for its total lack of sarcasm or judgment. Ezekiel and Cody gave a start at the unusual tone, and even Noah seemed caught off guard at the question he'd just asked, as well as the voice he'd asked it in.

Cody's eyes blinked open, widening in disbelief. He nodded silently, relief at his luck temporarily preventing a verbal response. If Noah wasn't going to berate him for it, he was essentially in the clear. Most of the time, the others in their little clique followed the book worm's lead.

"Sure about what?" Ezekiel piped in, looking between the two of them still puzzled.

"Come on Eze," Noah didn't bother answering the question as he headed towards the door of the locker room. Right before he left, Noah tossed one parting comment towards the dumbstruck Cody, "Uh, good-" Noah cut himself off, shaking his head, "See you in chemistry. Don't let the coach get to you." With that Noah shrugged and left.

Behind him Ezekiel followed Noah, still alternating between tossing questions to Noah and Cody, getting miffed that neither of his friends was responding, "What's he sure about? Where are you going to spend the period, eh? You can't stay during tryouts… …Psycho Chef's gonna go nuts if Cody gets in the way of tryouts! What the hell is-" the door swung shut cutting off Ezekiel's unanswered string of queries.

For a moment Cody was as puzzled as Ezekiel, genuinely wondering what Noah had been about to say. _He wasn't about to wish me luck, was he? No way. Not Noah. Not for soccer tryouts._ Cody stared at the door a moment longer, trying to figure out what Noah could have been about to say. The question would have to remain a mystery, because at that moment it was shaken from his mind, along with every other thought. A voice roared from the gym, carrying through the insulated door, and into the changing room with ease, rattling the hanging locks with its volume.

"Alright you little maggots! Stop playing dress-up and get your scrawny asses out here!"

All around Cody, locker doors started slamming shut. He turned to his own, making sure everything was firmly in and wouldn't block the door before shutting it and snapping the lock closed. He headed towards the exit, trying to psyche himself up for what lay ahead. Just as he cracked the door, the voice sounded again, even louder now that the door was open. The wall of sound almost pushed Cody backwards with sheer sonic force.

"If you pansies aren't lined up front and center by the time I count to three, don't even bother sticking around for the rest of the tryouts! One!"

Cody was suddenly being pushed through the door, literally dragged along in the stream of rushing and shoving soccer team hopefuls. He threw one last look over his shoulder towards the changing room._ If I hurry I could probably catch up to them before they made it to the library._

"Two," the angry voice of Coach Chef caused panic to surge, dashing the treacherous thought from Cody's mind as he stopped passively floating along in the crowd and sprinted across the gymnasium towards the fearsome figure. _God I hope I can do this. How bad can the tryouts be? _

Unfortunately, Cody received his answer rather abruptly. Due to his smaller size he was squeezed and jostled around by some of the buffer applicants, ending up in the very undesirable position directly in front of the looming monolith of a coach. This left him at the focal point when Coach Chef's chest swelled and he opened his bullhorn of a mouth.

"Three," Cody's bangs actually lifted, his hair fluttering backwards in the breeze of Coach Chef's shout. All of his thoughts were literally blown away, save for one. _Oh…crap._

**

* * *

**

_I can't believe he's doing this. Coach is going to eat the poor guy alive._ Trent watched the tryout opening warm ups from the only safe position in the entire gym, directly behind Coach Chef. At least back here he was shielded from most of the almost earth-shattering force of the coach's bellowing commands, as they were issued away from him and towards the unlucky kids trying out.

Around Trent the other soccer team members lounged lazily, their only job today to sit and watch. Most weren't even doing that, especially since the cheerleading tryouts were going on across the gym floor providing a much more entertaining view than a bunch of sweaty boys doing pushups. Meanwhile, their coach walked between the aisles of tryout kids, occasionally resting an army boot on the back of an unlucky applicant and telling them to put more effort into it. Only Trent was really paying attention to the crowd, and he was really only watching his friend, while gnawing worriedly at his lip.

Cody had been avoiding meeting his gaze, undoubtedly not wanting to see the worry evident in Trent's expression. Trent knew he was being avoided, because there was no way Cody couldn't have noticed him sitting four feet away on the bleachers. Especially since Trent stood out among the rest of the team. Trent was one of the only boys in the room whose gym clothes weren't solid white. Rather they had a faded, faint tint of green. The story was that they had been stained in the wash freshman year and his parents had refused to buy a new pair. Most students assumed the school let him get away with it because he was one of the rising star athletes as well as heavily involved in countless other school programs, especially music. Of course the real reason had everything to do with his little "OCD" problem, a secret that only the school officials, his parents, his girlfriend, and his best friend knew about. And that best friend was currently killing himself trying out for the soccer team to spend more time with him, and avoiding his gaze because Trent wasn't being properly supportive. Trent felt another twist of guilt as his attention remained fixed on Cody's struggling form, and he tried to work a cheerful expression on his face in case Cody finally relented and looked up.

It was hard to force the positivity. Cody was already looking a little red in the face and they hadn't even finished the push-up drills. Trent winced in sympathy when the roar of coach's voice sounded out; his count was interrupted by the familiar command that brought a shudder of sympathy from the seated soccer team, "One- inch position! Hold it!"

On cue every boy went to the down position in the push-up letting only an inch separated their noses from the floor. Then they held the position, waiting for the order to return to the upright pose. This was one of the coach's favorite tortures, forcing them to hold their bodies in that awkward position, straining arm muscles to keep their weight supported by such a small margin, all while he walked and talked.

"This reminds me of my days serving in the marines. We used to do this in the mud, while rain poured down. If you slipped, you had to stay down, face first in the mud," he stopped his story to lean down near a straining freshman, almost yelling in his ear, "And do you think we were allowed up early if we fell? Well, do you?"

The unlucky freshman shook his head no, his face locked in mute terror while his elbows shook from the strain.

"Damn straight we weren't. If you fell, you had to hold your breath and pray the sergeant let everyone up before you suffocated to death. Just hoping and praying he'd finally say…Up!"

Everyone shivered a second in indecision. They all wanted to abandon the torturous position but weren't sure if it was a trap. Fortunately the coach yelled angrily and cleared the confusion.

"What are you damn fools waiting for, I said up!"

Abruptly all the boys pushed back to the full upright position, most tottering as they rose.

"Another twenty," he began counting out pushups while still marching, breaking his count to continue his story, "One, two, three. Of course we didn't have nice big breakfasts first! Four, five, six. No that bastard made us do it at four in the morning. With no food. And we were grateful. Seven, eight, nine. If he'd given us food we'd have thrown it all up by the time we were done with the morning drills at six. Ten, eleven, twelve. Especially since he made us do sit ups, and pushups, thirteen, fourteen, until we were thought we would die. Then we had to run till our feet bled, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. And we always ended the same way we started, doing pushup, after pushup, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Always more damn pushups while dreading the moment when he'd say, ONE inch! Hold it!"

A few students just rested at ready position, not realizing the story had stopped and the coach's last comment had been a command. Cody was one of them. The coach was moving along the lines forcing the slow-pokes down roughly with a booted foot. He was slowly working his way to the front. With panic Trent waved frantically to get Cody's attention. Against his will Cody turned to look at Trent, unable to ignore the gestures. Quickly Trent mimed a halted push-up. With a start Cody shook himself out of his exhausted daze and noticed all the other guys around him down in one-inch position. He shot Trent a look that mixed gratitude and misery, before nodding and hunching down just before Coach Chef reached the front row of boys.

Satisfied that everyone was in position, the coach kept walking, his arms folded across his massive chest as he continued his story. "And our sergeant, he was one mean son-of-a-bitch. He'd make us sit there just for his amusement. Hell sometimes he'd even stand on our backs and do jumping jacks while we held that position," the coach stopped a second in front of a particularly scared looking kid, miming to step on the kid's back. When the kid visibly flinched and shuddered, the coach snorted once in disgust before moving on, "We never knew how long he'd make us stay down, but we couldn't quit until he said…" the coach paused as a few kids started to rise assuming another 'up' was coming, before catching themselves and holding still. With a satisfied nod he kept going, "until he said we could. Then one day, the bastard had a heart attack right in the middle of drills. Three men had fallen in the mud before someone came along and realized the sergeant was dead and told us…" again he trailed off deliberately drawing out the point in the story where he might give the relief command. When fewer reacted he seemed disappointed and launched back into the story with gusto, "…told us we could go. All three of the men who fell had to be given CPR. That sergeant almost killed us, all because he refused to tell us…" again a sadistic pause, "…tell us we could stop or even ask for help with his last breaths. He was that determined not to let anyone off easy," Coach Chef's voice turned thick with emotion as one hand moved to his eyes to rub at moisture forming, "God, I loved that man. He really cared," Coach Chef wiped his teary hand on his camouflage trousers before continuing down the line. He was almost to the very back, preparing to turn and march his way back to the front. By now all the kids were shaking and sweating, desperately praying his story would lead to someone giving the up command.

Trent pitied them, because he knew that the coach had no intention of letting them up until at least a few kids fell. He preferred to put the fear of god into everyone by removing at least three applicants at the start of the tryouts. This was achieved by picking the first to fall or give up during warm-up drills. Already the coach was about to launch into another story, when one kid fell forward.

"You," his finger pointed to the poor kid, "get changed, you're out."

He kept rambling on a new story, until a second kid tottered. Again he paused repeating the dismissal before returning to watching the remaining applicants.

Silently Trent was praying. _Come on Cody. Just outlast one more!_

It didn't seem to be Cody's day, because if Trent had to pick who looked most likely to collapse next, it was definitely Cody. On cue he saw Cody's right arm bend awkwardly and he realized his friend was in the midst of a muscle cramp. Cody awkwardly shifted his weight to the left and his sweaty left hand slipped. Cody started to fall. Right before the impact, Trent swore quietly and jumped up, moving faster than he was thinking or he'd have never done what he did next.

"Up," the command sounded out and every one of the boys doing push-ups rose gratefully, indifferent to who had given the order in their eagerness to return to ready position and out of that muscle aching hold. As the entire squad of boy's awkwardly rose to rest position, an enraged Coach Chef turned to the bleachers, to where that shout had originated. Trent could see his reflection grow larger in the mirror-like silvery finish on the sunglasses the coach insisted on wearing even indoors. One small part of Trent's brain noted that with those sunglasses now boring into him, the coach was completely oblivious to Cody rising from his collapse to join the others in ready position. Trent had a chance to feel remotely gratified that the coach had missed Cody's lapse, before he took full stock in what he'd just done by shouting 'up.'

He suppressed an undignified shiver of fear as Coach Chef stormed angrily up to him. Behind him he could hear the rest of his team shifting away from him. Team loyalty was not as strong as the terror that had been instilled in them all from working with their psychotic coach over the years.

"Is there some reason you think you can lead drills better than I can, Trent?" The volume behind the question shouted in his face had Trent staggering backwards a second. Inside he felt a small bit of relief, obviously the Coach was more puzzled than angry, or the yell would have been loud enough to knock him back into his seat.

Trent's hands snapped to his sides out of habit as he stood taller, shooting for every inch he could manage. "No, Coach sir!"

Coach Chef relaxed a little at the soldier-like response, a trick the entire team was familiar with abusing. It seemed to work more for Trent than most, possibly due to the militaristic shade of his gym uniform. Silently grateful for his love of green, Trent scrambled to think up an excuse for his action, certain he knew what the next question would be.

"Then tell me WHY," the last word was shouted with emphasis followed by a long pause before Coach Chef finished with a dangerously sweet tone, "you felt the need to interrupt my drills."

"Coach sir, the time," Trent pointed up at the wall. "You won't be able to run them through all of the outside drills if you don't start soon."

"Hmph," was Coach Chef's eloquent response. He went through the motions of peering up at the clock, but Trent was more than aware that with the sunglasses on, the coach couldn't actually make out the clock face from this far away. Not that the Coach would ever admit that or remove the sunglasses to see clearly. "Very well then," he turned to the kids lined up, "It's your lucky day maggots. So you can get on to the running, Mr. Trent here has just volunteered to finish the push-up drills. For all of you!"

Without bothering to protest, Trent dropped to push-up position, knowing what was expected and waiting for the number.

"Let's see eighteen recruits still here," Coach Chef mused outloud drawing out the moment of punishment sadistically; "They had another twenty five push-ups at least. And I'm sure they were going to last at least another ten seconds in one-inch position before the last one fell…" he paused doing the math in his head. He finally turned to loom over Trent before coming to a final number, "That's five hundred push-ups and hold the one-inch position for…five minutes."

Behind the coach's back, Cody's face turned red in indignation and he opened his mouth. Trent stopped Cody with a warning look, shaking his head no imperceptibly. Whether Cody was going to correct Coach Chef's gross miscalculation, or confess to it being his fault, Trent didn't care. He could handle a few push-ups and if Cody spoke out of turn, Coach Chef would happily use it as an excuse to get his third dismissal.

As Trent started in on his push-ups Coach Chef attention shifted to the still seated soccer team members. His face grimaced in irritation at the fact that they were all ignoring the proceedings to watch the cheerleaders. As his dark skin took on a purplish hue his attention settled onto the other captain, Tyler. Unfortunately, Tyler's very limited attention span was currently focused on watching his girlfriend Lindsey lead the cheerleader tryouts through a very bouncy set of jumping jacks rather than the contorting, angry face of his coach.

"Tyler," when he got no immediate response Coach Chef raised his volume from deafening to earsplitting, "TYLER!" That one got the boy's attention, as Tyler literally jumped to his feet, "Get your damn brain out of your shorts and back into your head. Get down here." Tyler almost tripped on the bleachers in his haste to get to the gymnasium floor. "Watch Trent, make sure he finishes. Count the five-hundred out."

Trent's face burned in embarrassment and strain while Tyler nodded mutely as he kneeled and started to count the push-ups for Trent out loud. In spite of the implied mistrust in setting Tyler to watch him, Trent caught the hidden message and was reassured that he wasn't the only one Coach Chef was mad at. Everyone on the team, including the coach, knew Trent would never skip out on a punishment, even a miscalculated one. Clearly, forcing Tyler to count was the coach's way to make sure the rest of the soccer team stopped slacking and started watching the potential recruits. Trent tensed in dismay as he realized that would mean more people watching if Cody messed up again.

Satisfied he'd gotten his message across to the soccer team, Coach Chef returned his attention to the tryout kids still cowering in terror. He was still clearly disgruntled at having only gotten rid of two. Abruptly his frown turned into a menacing smile as he hit on an idea to knock out the last one. A few of the more foolish kids smiled back, relaxing a little. They were unaware that a happy Coach Chef was not necessarily a nicer one. They learned their lesson quickly enough when he bellowed his next order.

"Listen up! I want a mile warm up around the track. Last one to finish is disqualified on the spot! Let's go! Move! Move! Move!"

From his position doing push-ups Trent couldn't see Cody run off, but he tossed a silent prayer in the direction of the track, as he heard the sound of twenty pairs of sneakers squeak towards the outdoor exit of the gym. Meanwhile the rest of the soccer team loped out after, save for Tyler, who was already messing up his count as his attention returned to the bouncing cheerleaders.

Trent ignored the incorrect numbers, counting the proper ones in his head. In the end he was selfishly grateful he was stuck doing the push-ups. At least he wouldn't have to watch the next part. The running drills always brought out the worst in Coach Chef. Trent wondered if he should have just let Cody fail the push-ups. Then the nightmare would have been over for the poor little guy, instead of letting his hope get strung along for more torture. _Cody, dude. I know I should be hoping you make it, but really I just hope you aren't too upset if you don't. Think Trent. Is there anything I'm in that Cody would enjoy and do well at?!_

**

* * *

**

_Cody, why are you such an idiot?_ You'd have to be brain dead, to want to subject yourself to the torture of extra time with the sadistic Coach Chef. Just look at the soccer team, there was the proof; mash all twelve brains together and they'd score a combined I.Q. of twelve. That was even after allowing that Trent might have a respectable score. Mostly because this would be countered by Tyler's negative score. What kind of person would want to spend more time in their company? Even a moron could see that in this situation, pass or fail, you'd still lose out in the end, and waste valuable energy in the trying. _And how dumb does that make me for liking Cody even more for being so determined to try? _

If he wasn't walking at a fast clip to keep Ezekiel far enough behind to not ask anymore stupid questions, Noah would have stopped to smash his head against a wall. He'd already had to resist doing that exact thing earlier, when he'd caught himself drooling over Cody's exposed smooth chest, flat stomach, and sexily tiny hips. And when Ezekiel had made that comment about Cody's shorts, it had taken all of Noah's considerable willpower to resist the urge to stare at Cody's exposed pale thighs. Why would Ezekiel even make that comment? It had been almost torture for Noah to have to resist the temptation. _In fact...it was torture. Oh, god damn it._

Noah abruptly stopped midstride, so suddenly that Ezekiel to side step to avoid crashing into him. Before Ezekiel could complain or, worse, start back up with the questions he'd been throwing at Noah since they'd left the gym, Noah leveled his most no-nonsense stare at his friend.

"Who told you?" Noah asked bluntly.

He felt a stir of dread when Ezekiel didn't immediately ask for clarification, but instead shifted uncomfortably, clearing knowing exactly what Noah meant.

"How do you know I didn't figure it out myself? I can be pretty sharp, eh?" Ezekiel's evasive response confirmed Noah's fears.

"Right," Noah snorted in disbelief at Ezekiel's reply before he started moving again in the direction of the library. He waited until Ezekiel fell into step beside him before asking again. "Seriously Eze, who told you? We both know you never would have figured something like this out on your own."

Ezekiel blustered a bit, making a big show of being offended. Noah was un-amused at the attempt to dodge his question. He rolled his eyes, but bit his tongue until they entered the library. As they walked past the glowering librarian, Noah quietly grabbed Ezekiel and made a beeline towards the reference stacks, which he was sure would be empty this early. In his irritation, he failed to notice Ezekiel's faint shiver when he grabbed his hand.

Soon they were in the periodicals section, the most perpetually empty section of the library, a fact Noah often used to his advantage when he needed to get away from everyone. Noah dropped Ezekiel's hand and sat down on the ground, leaning against the old journal's section. Ezekiel dropped down to the ground on the other side, watching Noah suspiciously. He remained mute, fully aware that Noah would find all sorts of hidden clues in what he might accidentally say. Not that Noah needed Ezekiel to speak to solve it.

"Izzy," Noah stated finally, breaking the silence and running his hands through his hair in frustration.

"What makes you think it was Izzy?" Ezekiel began in what he hoped was a non-committal response.

_Bing,. _Noah thought, feeling a small measure of relief. He'd already narrowed it down to the only three people who'd likely talk to Ezekiel, besides Noah himself. While he'd have been happiest if it had been Eva, at least Izzy was better than the third alternative. _I think I'd freak out if Cody ever figured it out. It feels bad enough crushing on him while I know he likes me as a friend. If he ditched me or hated me, I'm pretty sure I'd feel even worse_.

He was tempted to refuse explaining his logic to Ezekie, and just make a sarcastic observation that Ezekiel only really had three other friends who could have told him. In the end Noah decided to take pity on Ezekiel and find a nicer explanation. Especially since he was going to need Ezekiel's good will shortly as he planned on begging Ezekiel to keep his tongue on a leash and not make any more stupid comments around Cody. Noah wasn't quite sure which force was stronger, Cody's obliviousness or Ezekiel's lack of subtlety, but he had no desire to find out when Ezekiel started dropping what he thought were clever jokes and accidentally clued Cody in._ I think that would pretty much be my worst nightmare._

So Noah adopted a thoughtful expression for a second and came up with a rather elaborate explanation for how he had narrowed it down to three culprits, before arriving at Izzy.

"It had to have been someone you talked to this morning. If you knew last night you would have made some kind of joke when we were all watching movies and Cody fell asleep leaning on me."

Ezekiel accepted that statement with a shrug, though he didn't respond verbally, possibly still hoping Noah was just guessing out of the blue. Noah was unphased by Ezekiel's faltering attempt at being secretive. He was; however, deeply worried by Ezekiel's ready admittance that he was not capable of resisting the urge to make smart ass comments about Noah's crush. Noah's mind raced for possible ways to extract a promise of good behavior from Ezekiel. As he worried through that puzzle, he kept Ezekiel distracted by continuing his story.

"That left Eva, Izzy, and Cody." Ezekiel nodded his head again when Noah stated the obvious.

"I think we can both agree that there is no way Cody would ever figure it out." _I hope so, at least._ Noah tacked the silent prayer to the end of his statement. Ezekiel had no argument, agreeing with Noah on that score.

"But what about Eva, eh?" Ezekiel asked curious to hear why Noah had ruled her out.

"Eva would never have wasted her time trying to figure it out," Noah responded matter-of-factly, "If she even cared enough about something as 'weak' as a crush, she would have just come out an asked me rather than try to puzzle it out. At which point, I'd have known she knew.

"Which only left Izzy," Ezekiel frowned dismally as he stated the conclusion Noah had jumped to in only seconds of thought.

"Left Izzy what," the red head asked, appearing at the end of the stacks almost as if summoned by her name.

Both boys jumped to their feet with a start. Ezekiel stepped back against the shelves, putting extra distance between himself and Noah almost guiltily. Noah noticed but dismissed it as residual guilt over admitting that Izzy had been the one to figure out Noah's crush.

"Izzy, what are you doing here, eh?" Ezekiel asked nervously.

"Izzy, have you told anyone else I like Cody?" Noah started, speaking right over top of Ezekiel.

For a second Izzy cocked her head at Noah before turning and doing the exact same thing towards Ezekiel. Once she finally finished separating the blur of sound into two separate questions she answered Noah first.

"Yes, but only Eva," Izzy adopted a helpful expression, "Eva told Izzy it was Noah's business if he likes Cody and no one else should care…except maybe Cody. So Izzy _was_ going to tell Cody," Noah groaned for a second but Izzy waved his obvious concern away dismissively, "But…Eva said Izzy shouldn't do that without Noah's permission. Does Izzy have Noah's permission?" Izzy asked all innocent smiles.

"No," Noah almost shouted his response. As soon as Izzy nodded her acceptance of his decision, Noah felt a great wave of relief. His secret was safe for now. Then he remembered Ezekiel. _Kind of safe._

Meanwhile Izzy turned to Ezekiel before Noah had even started to relax, moving on to the other question with barely a pause for breath.

"Izzy didn't want to try out for cheerleading during gym class. They have stupid rules like not letting Izzy play in the games Izzy is cheering for. Plus Heather never lets anyone else play at the top of the pyramid," Izzy frowned in distaste at the name of the head cheerleader. Ezekiel and Noah both adopted a similar expression. 'Heather' was a good enough reason for not wanting to do anything, in most reasonable people's minds. And unreasonable people's minds as well, as Izzy clearly showed. "Eva decided to stick around and work out. But Izzy remembered Noah, Ezekiel, and Cody saying they'd hang out in the library. So…Izzy decided to come, too."

She paused for only the barest of seconds, performing a rapid scan of the area with her eyes to reaffirm that indeed someone was missing. The next question popped out of her before either boy had a chance to comment on her decision to come to the library.

"Izzy doesn't see Cody. Did he decide to stay and tryout for soccer?"

Ezekiel snorted in amusement at the idea. Noah,; however, forgot the golden rule of Izzy; expect the unexpected. Having had quite a lot of unexpected already for the day, he was unprepared for the question, and nodded an automatic yes. As Ezekiel stared at him stunned and Izzy shrugged, Noah winced at his slip-up. He had been trying to keep Ezekiel from guessing Cody's reason for not leaving the gym until after he knew if Cody had made it.

"No way, eh? Cody trying out for the soccer team?" Ezekiel's jaw dropped a little as he re-stated the, by this point, very obvious.

"Izzy hopes Cody isn't too upset when he doesn't make it," Izzy replied with a sad shake of her head.

"He could make it," Noah began before dropping the false optimism when Izzy gave him a surprisingly frank stare. "Ok so he probably won't. Let's just not bring it up in chemistry until he does, guys."

The statement might have been for the both of them, but Noah focused his attention on Ezekiel with the request. Izzy clearly already felt sorry for Cody and they didn't even know he hadn't made it yet. Ezekiel on the other hand, might take some convincing.

Sure enough Ezekiel shook his head in disagreement. He was not sure why he should have to pass up a golden opportunity for first rate teasing. Not out of spitefulness, it was all good-natured; at least, Noah assumed it would be. It was just hard for Ezekiel to resist any opportunity to try and provoke people he liked. Part of the whole growing up sheltered with only his family. He tended to treat his friends like siblings and definitely had a bratty little brother streak buried in him.

Ezekiel was already adopting that smirk that said Noah was going to have to waste the rest of the period brow beating him into behaving during chemistry, when the smirk vanished, to be replaced by something Noah couldn't identify.

"Why?" Ezekiel asked.

"Why shouldn't you rub Cody's face in this?" Noah asked, a bit taken aback that he should have to state the obvious fact that they should be nice to their friend.

Ezekiel shook his head and waved away Noah's misinterpretation.

"Why Cody?" When Noah only met Ezekiel's question with continued confusion, Ezekiel spoke slower, spelling it out as plainly as he could. "Why do you have a crush on Cody? What makes him so special?"

Noah clammed up, crossing his arms and adopting a stony expression that said clearly, _no way am I telling you that_. Noah had no desire to discuss something that personal with anyone. Least of all Ezekiel. There was no end to the number of ways Ezekiel could use that kind of information to tease him, which was what Noah assumed Ezekiel wanted the information for. Both boys overlooked the sudden shrewd expression that crossed Izzy's face as she examined both Noah and Ezekiel during their moment of mutual disagreement. This was mostly because up to a dozen expressions could and did cross Izzy's face during a normal conversation and usually less than half had anything to do with the actual conversation being had. It was also just an innate part of Izzy. Even her friends sometimes forgot her presence, not counting her as really being there till she made a statement that proved she was actually paying attention and not off in some fantasy. It was part of why it was so easy for her to figure out things people were trying to keep secret.

"If you want me to keep my lips zipped, you have to give me something else to think about," Ezekiel said in response to the long silence that had stretched out. Noah felt himself shift uncomfortably, weighing the options. Seeing the moment of weakness, Ezekiel pushed, "It doesn't have to be all of them, eh? Just a few. How about…seven, eh? Seven good reasons why you like Cody, of all people. Do it and I won't tease him about being a jock wanna-be poser."

Noah winced at Ezekiel's tactless label for Cody. He closed his eyes and contemplated the request. _Seven? Can I even come up with seven? _Noah dismissed that worry with a shrug. He could come up with seven in seven seconds. But should he? In the end he was setting himself up to get teased as the price for keeping Cody from getting picked on. _Stupid crush, I can't believe I'm agreeing to this._ The rather unselfish decision settled very unpleasantly in Noah's gut. With an unhappy slump of defeat, Noah sank to the floor, drawing his knees to his chest with his arms as he cocked his head and tried to think of just seven reasons why Cody was so perfect.

Izzy dropped to the ground in a cross legged pose leaning forward eagerly. Ezekiel was at least as eager, dropping to his knees and leaving ever so slightly into Noah's personal space, not even completely sure himself what the name was for the emotion that made him so suddenly interested in what made Cody so special to Noah.

Noah gathered his reasons in his head, finally settling on seven that he hoped would qualify as 'good' reasons. With a sigh he looked up, trying not to laugh at the expressions of expectation on his friend's faces. The tiny surge of amusement relaxed him a little and happened to go along perfectly with his first reason. With a genuine smile that he usually hid from even his close friends, Noah started, "Well…Cody makes me laugh…"

**

* * *

**

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? Are you all trying to be funny? If I wanted to see a bunch of brainless animals trying to bounce a ball all over the place, I'd go watch seals at a circus. This is a soccer field; aim for the damned goal! I don't even like the damned circus. All those clowns," Coach Chef shivered a second before continuing his mindless rant to himself. Around him everyone who was still part of the tryouts was too busy trying to focus on their drills to actually listen. Not that their lack of attention did anything to stop his story, "Scary things. Big red noses, big ass wigs, ugly make-up. And the creepy laughing. Always makes me think of that damned Stephen King book." He stopped to glare at a boy who was struggling to keep dribbling the ball forward without slipping. "You," a finger flashed towards the hapless kid. "Do you read Stephen King?" Frozen by the random question the freshman shook his head no and completely lost track of the ball which escaped him and rolled away.

"Focus boy! You lost the ball! Well, don't just stand there! Go get it! Not with your hands god damn it this is soccer! Use your feet! Oh Hell. Forget it. Dismissed!"

Cody followed up next, finishing his running dribble drill with only two near trips. Not that bad all things considered. Granted, he'd done horribly in the knee dribbles, and he'd only blocked two goals during his turn in goalie position, but he'd finished with the second fastest time during the mile and most of his shots had gone in, or at least in the right direction. That was a lot better than the hapless freshman that had ended up bouncing his first kick into Coach Chef's ass while he was glaring at a pair of students doing passing drills. That kid hadn't bothered waiting for Coach Chef to dismiss him. He'd cut and run for the changing room the second Coach Chef had started swearing and turning around.

Coach Chef had been so peeved at the getaway that his expression had turned homicidal; not relaxing to merely a furious glare until he'd dismissed another three kids.

_Which leaves how many?_ With a start Cody realized that between being exhausted and terrified, sometimes both at once, he had lost track of the dismissals. A quick glance around him left him feeling very surprised to discover he was one of three applicants left. He knew from questions he'd 'innocently' asked Trent the week before that there were two openings on the varsity team this year. Cody actually felt the terror fade for the first time since gym class had started. A cautious smile flittered across his expression.

"What in god's name are you smiling at? Do you see any reason to be amused?" Coach Chef's voice roared in Cody's ears as he loomed menacingly above him.

**

* * *

**

"He's not that funny," Ezekiel countered.

Noah flashed a look of annoyance at Ezekiel for the interruption.

"I said he makes me laugh," Noah said with a flat stare, "It doesn't matter if you or anyone else doesn't think he's funny. I do."

"Fine, he's funny. Next," Ezekiel shot back.

"Well…he never gives up."

**

* * *

**

Cody stared up in horror, seeing two small terrified versions of himself staring back in the reflections off of Coach Chef's sunglasses.

"Did you hear me boy? I said what are you smiling at?"

"Um. Nothing?"

"Damn straight nothing! This is soccer. There's nothing fun about soccer. Soccer is serious. Soccer is combat. Soccer is war! And you look mighty scrawny to be a soldier!" Cody felt one of his arms jerked from his socket as Coach Chef grabbed his hand, pulling out the gangly limb for inspection. A large finger poked with just short of bruising force at his arm as Coach Chef commented, "Barely any meat on these bones."

Cody felt faint with relief when Coach Chef released his arm and moved away. That is until Coach Chef walked over the goal crouching down in the center of it and waved Cody over.

"Make a shot; if it gets past me, you're in. If not," his finger hovered menacingly. With an audible gulp Cody stared at the ball by his feet, then at the menacing form blocking the goalie net. With a look of worry Cody bounced the ball a few times, before closing his eyes and tossing a silent prayer. He opened them and backed up to get a running start for the kick. He stood still a moment.

"Are you going to sit there all day? Move it, you scrawny, little-"

Cody raced forward the instant Coach Chef started yelling, spurred on by the shout. A pity he never saw the divot in the field. At the last moment his forward foot caught in the uneven hole made by a previous student's poorly aimed kick. As he stumbled, his kicking foot still connected with the ball, but lower than he intended, sending it sailing high, with an unexpected spin, and with a little more force than even he knew he could have put behind it. Coach Chef was still in the middle of his rant, unprepared for the spin, angle, or speed as the ball veered unerringly towards him. With a shattering crack, the ball connected with his face, interrupting his tirade before bouncing back towards a rapidly paling, shivering Cody. Two small flashes of light traced the paths of the shattered halves of the sunglasses as they fell to the grass. Cody could see the alarmingly white, wide, glaring eyes of Coach Chef squinting angrily at the harsh sunlight and staring straight at him. With a shudder of dismay, Cody knew what was coming long before the meaty finger lifted and aimed unerringly at his chest.

A dozen options ran through his head. He could try to explain that it had been an accident. He could ask for another shot pointing out that one might not have gone in, but it had been fast enough that the Coach Chef hadn't blocked it properly. He could just beg outright for another chance. He could demand that the other two go through the same test. All the options slipped through his mouth, but nothing forced its way through his mute expression. His head bowed and instead he stumbled off the field.

**

* * *

**

"Please, he gives up all the time." Ezekiel disagreed. "He gave up in Risk last week."

"Only after I got Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa. That wasn't giving up, that was a dignified surrender in the face of overwhelming superiority. And he still waited too long," Noah added with a grumble, "he _should_ have surrendered an hour earlier when I conquered Asia. Everyone knows the game's over if someone gets Asia."

Izzy cut through with a far more serious point, "What about Gwen?"

Noah actually flushed at that her point, his cheeks darkening, while Ezekiel stared at the red head with a start, caught off guard by both the support and the intelligent observation. Meanwhile, Noah squirmed, Gwent wasn't a name that he particularly enjoyed thinking about. He was very aware of that particular chapter of Cody's life. Hell, people who wouldn't even recognize Cody face to face, knew about that. Even though Cody hadn't been hanging out with any of them back then, in junior high that kind of drama was gossip gold, it had been the buzz of the cafeteria for weeks after Gwen came to the school. Just thinking about it made Noah's stomach unsettled. The entire incident was rather depressing proof of Cody's orientation, neatly summing up Cody's best qualities but also working in the one fact that Noah didn't care for in the least.

Noah tried to explain the difference between giving up and what Cody had done, if for no other reason than put the topic to rest so Gwen wouldn't come up again.

"She was in love with Trent. What was he supposed to do? Make a huge stink, embarrass himself and lose a friend? There's a difference between giving up and admitting defeat. If there's no dignified way to win, admitting defeat is better than pushing through and being an idiot because you don't know when to quit."

Noah was a bit surprised himself at how well that explanation worked out. And it definitely shut Ezekiel and Izzy while they tried to work through the logic. This was exactly what Noah was hoping for. It gave him a chance to get to his third reason before one of them, most likely Ezekiel, decided to drag Cody being straight into the conversation.

"Anyway, I also lo-," Noah had been in such a rush he almost used the wrong word. With a quick flush he took a breath and rephrased his statement to avoid teasing, "I like the way we can talk about anything."

**

* * *

**

"At least none of my friends were around for that," Cody replied as he headed back towards the gym with a depressed slump.

Most people know better than to say something like that and even Cody was well aware that it's best not to tempt Fate with such loaded statements as, 'at least that will never happen to me.' Still considering his horrible experience, it was understandable that he might forget to watch his mouth. Fate alas, is not very forgiving for no sooner had Cody finished that dreadfully unfortunate utterance, than he noticed Eva jogging past, finishing a lap around the soccer field. He hoped she might be too distracted to notice him, but she waved and quickly altered her path to intersect him at the gym door.

Cody offered a quiet prayer begging relief from whichever god clearly had it out for him today. Then Eva was next to him and he quickly smoothed his expression into something a little more cheerful and a little less how he felt, which was somewhere between bad and worse.

"Shrimp," she said as she removed her headphones and slowed to a walk, "that was a nice kick. Didn't think you had that much power."

"Oh yeah. Uh…thanks," Cody felt his face turn even redder. _So she saw everything. Awesome, I can't wait till Noah and Ezekiel find out. _Cody shivered as they entered the gym and wasn't sure if it was from the air conditioned gymnasium or the thought of the teasing he'd suffer for braining Coach Chef with a soccer ball during tryouts. Grasping at a desperate straw, Cody bit his lip, one hand scratching the back of his neck nervously as he turned to Eva, "Could you, uh, not tell any of our friends about that kick? Especially Noah?" Cody wasn't sure why he was more worried about Noah than Ezekiel, especially with Ezekiel's tendency to poke and prod.

Eva stared at him almost suspiciously a moment, before her face fell back to the flat, angry-at-the-world, stare she preferred.

"Sure. Whatever. Their fault for being lazy wasting time at the library. They should have stuck around to see the show," Eva replied in an uninterested voice.

**

* * *

**

"True, Cody does tell you everything," Izzy agreed with a toothy grin.

"He tells everyone everything," Ezekiel followed up with an exaggeratedly bored tone, "And it's mostly about what all the popular kids are up to, or what new stupid song everyone's downloading, or what Trent is doing now. Since when did any of that stuff interest you?"

That was the final straw to Noah. His fist curled angrily and his jaw squared stubbornly as he stopped staring off dreamily and met Ezekiel with an angry look.

"Are you going to listen, or keep contradicting everything Eze? First you force me to humiliate myself and admit all of this and then you argue every point? I didn't think you'd have a problem with me liking a guy."

Noah glared spitefully, but stopped there, not angry enough to finish his tirade out loud in front of Izzy and betray a confidence. _I always figured you'd be supportive considering you're bi. You're acting like your dad. _It was the unspoken final thought that quenched Noah's irritation. He was very familiar with Ezekiel's upbringing, more so than most of their friends. The sheepish look of awkward regret and embarrassment on Ezekiel's face calmed him further and after a deep breath, Noah soothed his tone to something more business-like as he broke the awkward silence.

"Can I just finish, please?" Noah waited for mute nods from both Ezekiel and Izzy before continuing, "Anyway, it's not just that we can talk about anything. We both like the same things…"

**

* * *

**

"So…why were you outside running," Cody decided a topic change was the best way to follow up Eva's agreement for silence on the kick-which-shall-never-be-discussed-again.

"Them," Eva said with an angry jerk of her head towards the group of girls shouting and jumping around on the gymnasium floor.

"Helloo, ladies," Cody grinned, his gloominess temporarily banished by the attractive view. Suddenly aware of the presence of cheerleaders and potential cheerleaders nearby, Cody ran a hand through his hair, squared his shoulders out of their unhappy slump, and puffed up his not-that-impressive chest.

Eva gave a snort of either amusement or disbelief. Cody deflated a little at her reaction.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Wasting your time shrimp. Most of them are taken. By…guys like that," Eva pointed back towards the soccer field Cody had just left, where the team was being introduced to their two newest members.

Cody's face fell further, causing the slightest hint of sympathy to cross Eva's normally stony expression. She rolled her eyes in disgust with herself as she threw her arm around Cody and pointed at one end where a few cheerleaders were taking a break from watching the tryouts. Her finger leveled on the two at the edge with identical double ponytail haircuts, but vastly different builds. One was a bit on the short side and a little plumper than Cody would have imagined a cheerleader. The other; however, immediately caught Cody's attention. _Slim build, luxuriant dark hair, tanned skin. If she has brown eyes she's pretty much 'perfect.' _

Once she was sure his attention was on the right cheerleaders Eva offered blunt words that were as close as she could come to encouraging anyone.

"Those two. Katie and Sadie, the only two on the team who are single. That's your best bet."

Cody nodded dreamily, standing in place until Eva shoved him roughly towards them. Once his feet started, they kept going with a mind of their own. Halfway there he tossed a nervous look over his shoulder realizing he needed one key piece of information still.

"Uh Eva…which one's which?"

"I forget," Eva replied with a shrug. "Doesn't really matter," she added as an afterthought.

"How could you forget which is which?" Cody asked flabbergasted.

"You'll see," Eva replied mysteriously before putting her IPod back on, signaling the end of their conversation as she headed towards the changing room.

With a confused shrug, Cody turned and gathered up his courage as he approached the cluster of girls.

**

* * *

**

Noah delayed listing the next one, testing Ezekiel and Izzy's resolve to keep their traps shut.

Sure enough, Ezekiel looked like he was biting back a comment and Noah was pretty sure he knew which one it was. Taking pity on Ezekiel, Noah sighed before responding to the unspoken point Ezekiel was undoubtedly dying to bring up.

"Well we like most of the same things. Obviously there's the whole Cody being into girls," Noah replied while deliberately lowering his gaze to examine his hands, which had returned to holding his knees to his chest. For a moment Izzy made sympathetic sounds, but Noah waved her away without bothering to raise his gaze. The last thing he wanted was sympathy. That would only encourage him to wallow in useless self-pity. And Noah didn't do wallowing. _I'm cool with it really. I'm happy being just friends. Yup, totally ok with it! _

"Whatever, I don't expect him to like me back, so it's not like him being straight upsets me," Noah offered in what he hoped was a convincing voice. Before his friends could say anything about that, or wonder who Noah was really trying to convince them or himself, he rubbed his hands together and moved on.

"So yeah, I guess this reason goes without saying, but I think he's cute. Like incredibly hard to resist, can't stop thinking about it when I look at him, hot…"

**

* * *

**

All Cody got out was hi, a single bashful, quiet hi. Both girls had turned as one, mirrored expressions of pleasant greeting on their faces.

"Oh my god-" the shorter one began in a giddy, high pitched voice.

"Who are you?" the taller one finished equally bouncy.

_Brown eyes,_ the thought danced through Cody's head. Granted they didn't make her as perfect as he thought they would. Too wide, a bit too light, definitely too nice, and a little empty. But still very attractive. Cody was about to introduce himself when another voice cut through in a scathing tone.

"What are you doing talking to us?" the pale, skinny speaker with shoulder length black hair shoved both girls aside to glare menacingly at Cody.

"Uh…just saying h-hi?" Cody considered himself a ladies man, but the thing glaring at him now caused no stir of attraction or interest. That was because there was precious little about Heather that qualified as a lady. Sure, she was female and wore the kinds of outfits that made sure no one forgot why she was the captain of the cheerleaders. But she was the kind of girl that made one doubt the old fable about sugar, spice, and everything nice. _More like lemons and limes, and a gallon of slime, that's what little Heathers are made of._

"What's going on Heather?" asked Heather's grinning vapid co-captain, Lindsay, as she flounced over. Cody almost forgot to be afraid of Heather as he was distracted by the way Lindsay's more than ample cleavage continued to bounce long after she had stopped moving.

"This...loser," Heather motioned towards Cody with a nod of her head, "was trying to flirt with cheerleaders."

Katie and Sadie both adopted stunned faces of surprise before giggling at Cody in identical fashion. The friendly response and the blush it brought out from Cody only irritated Heather further.

"What?" Lindsay asked in a confused tone, possibly the only tone she was capable of. She scratched her head as she examined Cody, "But you're so…small. You can't date a cheerleader unless you're a jock or hot, everyone knows that. And you…you're…not." The words weren't spoken meanly, more as if Lindsay was struggling to understand something that challenged her world view. Like gravity suddenly pulling up instead of down. Assuming she even knew what gravity was which she probably didn't.

"Not cool, Lindsay. That isn't being very nice," Bridgette, the other blonde bombshell of the cheerleading squad commented as she entered the conversation.

"Oh, do you really think so Bonnie?" Lindsay asked as her tone turned upset. "Gosh I didn't mean to be mean."

Heather rolled her eyes and huffed at the interference from Bridgette.

"Oh please, Bridge. Lindsay was totally right," Heather began. Lindsay brightened at the compliment until Heather finished, "for once." Heather turned her gaze back onto Cody with a cruel smirk, "I don't know why you were bothering with them. You're not even good enough for Tweedle ditz and Tweedle dumb over there."

Katie and Sadie turned twin looks of outrage on Heather.

"Hey Katie isn't stupid,-" began Sadie.

"Hey Sadie isn't stupid,-" Katie began, at the exact same moment.

Suddenly both girls froze, staring at each other in wounded horror.

"Why would you think she meant me," they both asked the other simultaneously.

Heather smirked in satisfaction at her handiwork as the twins started to fight. Meanwhile, Lindsay and Bridgette immediately stepped in to separate the bickering girls.

Cody, completely forgotten, backed away slowly. Finally he felt he was far enough away to make an unobserved getaway. He turned with every intention of running into the locker room and hiding from everyone, but smacked his head into someone heading towards the same squabble he was escaping. Cody rubbed his skull achingly and for a second his vision doubled, before his eyes began to focus on the pink blur in front of him. Girls weren't restricted by the same all white uniform rule the boys were forced to follow, but the body he'd crashed against hadn't felt particularly soft. There was one unpleasant explanation for that.

_Oh crap, please be a girl, please don't be,_ Cody looked up and gulped miserably as his fears were confirmed, _Tyler._

Some might wonder why Tyler was in a rather feminine color. The reason came down to a rather basic aspect of his nature. At his core Tyler was very competitive, at least in sports and gym. Once Trent had shown up in faded green freshman year, the rumor mill had seized on the idea that the school let him do it because he might be the best freshman athlete. Tyler had rushed home the day he heard that particular story and tried to establish his own athletic uniqueness by staining his own gym clothes his signature color, red. Unfortunately, no one had bothered explaining to Tyler what color red and white produced when combined. He had shown up for gym the next day in pink shorts and a pink t-shirt. Mulish pride kept him from going back to plain white and admitting he'd screwed up. He was equally motivated by not wanting to let Trent have the honor of being the only jock in colored gym clothes. The school hadn't bothered correcting him as they hadn't with Trent, probably because they never figured a boy would be dumb enough to keep wearing pink in gym class. They grossly overestimated Tyler. Apparently, he preferred beating up the kids foolish enough to snicker at him rather than show up in white while Trent kept getting to wear green. The end result was that at least during gym, Tyler was very, very touchy and the last person anyone wanted to mess around with.

"Uh, s-s-sorry," Cody apologized as he edged out of Tyler's way.

"Whatever," Tyler responded, apparently unusually forgiving this once as his eyes were locked on the sexy catfight breaking out among the cheerleaders.

Unable to believe his luck, Cody started to walk past, but Heather's secret 'bitch' sense reminded her of her unfinished business. She looked up in time to see Tyler and Cody's collision and moved towards them, dragging Lindsay along. Bridgette narrowed her eyes at Heather suspiciously but was unable to follow and prevent further mischief now that she was stuck trying to separate the feuding twins without Lindsay's aide.

"Hey Babe," Tyler smiled happily at his girlfriend's approach as he flexed in a studly pose.

"Oh hi Trevor!" Lindsay responded. Tyler winced at his girlfriends trademark blunder with his name, and dropped the pose in defeat. Rather than remind her for the thousandth time that the guy she'd been dating for a year was named Tyler, he chose to try another topic.

"What's up with the fight?"

"Oh that, ummmmm" Lindsay turned and looked at the fight, letting one finger rest on her chin thoughtfully as she struggled valiantly to remember an event that had only occurred a minute prior.

"Him," Heather answered for Lindsay and pointed at Cody. "He said Lindsay was the hottest girl on the team. Bridgette and the twins got into a fight about who was really the prettiest, which is just silly because," Heather laughed airily moment before placing a hand on her chest, "obviously, its me."

Tyler's grimaced at Heather, but wisely chose not to argue with her, instead turning to stare suspiciously at Cody.

**

* * *

**

In spite of her promise, Izzy giggled at Noah's confession. Yet another uncharacteristic flush crossed Noah's cheek, something that had been happening all too frequently since he'd fallen for his gap-toothed friend.

"Izzy is sorry, but Noah was looking all puppy-eyed," Izzy apologized as soon as she could stop laughing.

"I was not," Noah started with a frown.

"Dude, you totally were," Ezekiel supported Izzy whole heartedly, finally finding a reason to smile himself.

"Whatever," Noah replied flatly. Unfortunately both of his friends were more than familiar with the fact that 'whatever' was Noah's fallback word when he had lost an argument. In the face of their knowing smiles he grumbled moodily before continuing, "I thought we were talking about Cody not me." Again his friends smirked and Noah sighed before covering his face with his palm and moving on. "I also like Cody because he's smart; we all know how rare that is in this school…"

**

* * *

**

"What kind of idiot would hit on my girlfriend," Tyler asked as his eyes narrowing angrily at Cody.

"I wasn't," Cody defended himself, "She's lying."

Tyler looked between Heather and Cody in indecision. The idea of Heather lying wasn't exactly shocking, but he wouldn't put it past anyone to be tempted by Lindsay's goddess-like looks. And Tyler certainly couldn't let anyone get away with hitting on his girlfriend.

"He was?" Lindsay asked in a vapid tone. "I don't think I remember that…"

"Ugh, Lindsay you don't remember Tyler's name, of course you don't remember this."

"Who's Tyler?" Lindsay asked innocently.

Tyler winced at the reminder of his girlfriend's 'memory problems.' Figuring this fight was lost against someone with Heather's level of manipulation, Cody started walking away hoping that Tyler would just let it drop. He hadn't gotten very far before a hand clenched his shoulder with bruising force. Tyler turned him roughly around, letting his free hand curl into a fist and hover in front of Cody's face.

"Dude, do you think I'll let you get away with flirting with Lindsay?"

"I said I wasn't hitting on her," Cody responded weakly.

"Lindsay says you did, I think," Tyler replied temporarily stalling in confusion. "No matter what Lindsay says, Heather says you did. That means she's going to tell everyone else that too, so I have to at least hit you once to save face, dude," Tyler explained almost apologetically as he pulled his fist back for a punch. At that moment Cody was roughly ripped form Tyler's grasp. Before Tyler or Cody could register the act, Trent stepped into the space left vacant, glowering at Tyler.

"If Cody said he didn't do something, he didn't do it," Trent said coldly.

"Dude, you're just taking his side because you have a soft spot for the dork. I wasn't going to kill him or anything, just bruise him a little. Why do you always have to get in my way This is between me and Cody." Tyler replied as he stepped back cautiously, but kept his fists up so no one watching would ever think he was retreating. With a burst of speed Tyler lunged around Trent trying to score a quick hit on Cody. While Tyler wasn't necessarily a mean guy, he did have his pride at stake. Now he had to hit Cody to save face in front of Lindsay and to show he wasn't afraid of Trent.

Already well aware that Tyler would never back down where himself or pride were involved, Trent was expecting it. He swung an arm out almost lazily, hooking Tyler across the chest and tightening around his neck as Tyler tried to push past. Trent used Tyler's momentum to swing himself around as well, ending up behind Tyler, locking his opponent in a headlock.

"Just leave him alone Tyler, I'm sure Cody didn't do whatever Heather said he did. You know you can't believe anything she says," Trent reasoned with his squirming captive.

Suddenly the ground rumbled ominously as the angry roar of Coach Chef stopped both boys in their tracks.

"Trent! What in the sam-hill are you doing to Tyler!? Break it up!"

**

* * *

**

"But the best thing about Cody," Noah finished with a fond smile, "Is that he always does the right thing. No matter what it costs him. That's the biggest reason I lo-" again Noah flushed catching himself from slipping up a second time that period. His dramatic finish was ruined by the awkward near confession and he ended plainly, "That's why I like him so much."

**

* * *

**

Tyler and Trent jumped apart guiltily as Coach Chef stepped in between them. Silence reigned for a moment as both juniors stood under the eerily exposed, sunglass-less glare of the suspicious gym teacher.

"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?" he said after the pause stretched out.

The boys directed their eyes towards their feet nervously, neither one breaking the silence.

"If no one speaks up, I'm just going to have to punish you both," Coach Chef threatened in hopes of encouraging a confession.

Cody wasn't surprised that Tyler didn't jump at the bait; a confession would just get him in more trouble for picking fights with another boy, as well as talking to the cheerleaders rather than joining the team outside after Trent's push-up punishment had ended. What surprised Cody was that Trent was being equally quiet. All Trent had done was try to save Cody from being beaten. Of course bringing that information up would just drag Cody into the mess, which Cody realized with a sinking heart, Trent would never do. Not even if it meant suffering whatever tortures the very inventive coach would think up. _Damn it Trent, just tell him! _

The only person immune to the aura of menace was the vapid blonde Lindsay, who like lemmings running off a cliff, lacked enough common sense to recognize a dangerous situation and keep her mouth shut. Behind the coach Lindsay raised her hand helpfully and opened her mouth, but then froze, shifting to scratching her head in confusion as she tried to remember just what had happened before the coach had entered the scene. Before she could offer what little, probably mistaken information remained in her hollow skull, Heather tossed a hand over Lindsay's mouth and dragged her away towards the cheerleader squad. While Heather always enjoyed watching someone else receive a punishment, especially one she was indirectly responsible for, it was never smart to be close to Coach Chef during a tirade. Not if you wanted to have full use of your ears for the rest of the day.

At that moment Coach Chef growled loudly forcing both boys to look up at him. Satisfied he had their attention he swelled his chest to begin announcing whatever sadistic punishment was coming to mind. His head turns slightly towards Trent, obviously deciding to start with the boy who had already ruined his warm-ups earlier in the day.

Thanks to that snarling sound, only Cody noticed the rapid retreat of the girls. Tyler and Trent were finding it too difficult to break Coach Chef's stare. Having been shielded from the full effect of his eyes by sunglasses for years neither was prepared for the dilated pupils and freakishly huge red veins creeping along the whites of the eyes.

The retreat seemed like a good idea. _A damned good idea_. Especially as Cody had done enough to Coach Chef for one day. Heck he'd done enough to Coach Chef for one year. And just because it was now painfully clear that the madman would never be Cody's soccer coach did mean Cody was safe from the man. Coach Chef was still the only boy's gym teacher at the school, which meant five days a week for the rest of this year and next, Cody still had to deal with him. _Which makes what I'm about to do, really, really, really stupid._

Before Cody could contemplate just how much he was going to regret the actions his gut was spurring him onto, he coughed loudly, freeing both boys from their coach's attention. As the beady eyes snapped to Cody and widened in recognition, Cody had to stamp down very hard on the urge to run.

"Uh, it wasn't Trent's fault," Cody started awkwardly, but lost his voice for a second under the gym teacher's stare.

A look of panic crossed Trent's face and he opened his mouth, undoubtedly to stop Cody. _Just like he tried to stop me from even getting involved with these tryouts. He was right the whole time; I shouldn't have bothered doing any of this. I just made everything worse._

Still Cody wasn't the kind of loser that let his friends sink for him. Seeing Trent about to try, once again to save him from himself, Cody managed to untie his tongue and finish his confession.

"I-I was the one Tyler was fighting with. Trent just tried to stop us," as Cody stopped there, a twinge from his conscience told him he hadn't quite finished. With a sigh he continued, "I'm also the one who messed up the warm-up drills. I fell. Trent just covered for me." the heroicness of the moment was diminished when Cody's voice cracked towards the end.

Coach Chef ran one hand over his bald head, muttering and turning purple in the face.

"Boy," the coach began not knowing Cody well enough to have a proper name to use, even after two years of being Cody's gym teacher. "Why, you…I," Coach Chef was at a loss for words temporarily, a fact that was undoubtedly in everyone presents favor. It at least meant the yelling was absent. Finally giving up on finding a way to put just how pissed he was into words, the coach pointed towards the locker rooms with an aura of finality. "To think I almost let you on the team." Trent's eyes widened at that news, but that made Cody only groan internally. Now he'd have to tell Trent about the kick that had cost him the spot later. Meanwhile, Coach Chef continued, "I don't know why you decided to ruin MY tryouts, but I promise you, even if half the team falls over dead tomorrow, you won't have a spot on this team. I wouldn't even trust you with towel boy. Now! Get! Out!"

With a very heavy heart Cody turned and ran for the locker room. For a brief agonizing moment the thump of his sneakers on the wooden floor was the only sound echoing through the gym. Behind him, Coach Chef turned to glare at the rest of the room causing it to erupt into a bustle of noise as students quickly resumed whatever they'd been doing before stopping to watch the humiliating show. Cody didn't notice the sudden return of normality, as the sounds were drowned out by the miserable monologue in his head. _Why did I think this was a good idea? Once a loser, always a loser._


End file.
